Remember
by rebmetpes-86
Summary: She was 19. He was 20. They were the best of friends. Then he was convicted of murdering her. Lilly and the rest of the team are determined to discover the truth. But all the evidence still points to the boy that is reluctant to talk...[Please R & R!]
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_November 2003_

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of our presentation."

The applause was thunderous as the four students grabbed each other's hands and took a bow at the front of the class a split second before the bell rang. The rest of the class quickly stuffed their notebooks into their backpacks and bolted out of the room a few offering "well done's" and "nice jobs" to the group.

"Hey, nice job you did there." Josh said as he gave a friendly slap to the arm of his group mate Victoria. "Never thought you had it in you. Then again I never thought we'd be doing a theatrical presentation in our English class."

Victoria took off the bright red clown wig and handed it back to a short and skinny dark haired girl. "Never knew I had it in myself. And I would have never guessed Laura owned such a cool red wig." She tucked some black bangs back behind her ear and straightened out her glasses, giving the three of them a grateful smile.

"Wait, Laura, give the wig back to Victoria, we have to take a picture of this for memory." Josh suggested as he pulled out a small camera from his backpack. Laura handed the wig back and though Victoria rolled her eyes she had on a good naturedly smile as she yanked the wig back onto her head.

"I'll take the picture." The other brunette offered.

Josh rolled his eyes. "Come on Andrea, you look just fine in pictures alright?"

"Not today!" Andrea protested. "I've been sick for the past week, I look hideous."

"Alright, fine." It was Josh's turn to roll his eyes as he handed the camera to Andrea before going to stand in between Laura and Victoria, putting a heavy arm over both girls' shoulders.

"Say cheese." Andrea instructed as she peered through the lens.

"Cheese!"

"See you around sometime." Andrea said to Josh as she handed back the camera. She and Laura gave a silent wave to Victoria talking on her cell phone before the two slipped out of the near empty classroom.

"Hey who was that?" Josh asked once Victoria put away her phone. He couldn't help notice the cloud that had come over the girl's face. Some people showed no emotion on their faces, and some people showed everything emotion on their faces through they desperately tried to hide it from the world. Victoria was definitely one of the latter.

"Nothing." Victoria forced a smile as she slung her backpack over one shoulder and zipped up her jacket. "Just an unpleasant reminder from my past."

"Something you'd rather forget, huh?" Josh asked as he held open the classroom door for her.

She contemplated that comment for a second. "Not really, just something I wish I had done differently. Another regret of my life."

* * *

_April 2004_

Adam stretched and yawned as he watched Adrienne close and lock the window above the counter. As much as he loved his job (most days) he couldn't wait to get home. He needed all the time he could get over the weekend to study for his last final exam.

She turned around and caught the latter half of his yawn. "Long day huh?"

Adam nodded and got up from his chair. "Ready for your last final?"

"Oh please, like anybody is ever ready." Adrienne joked. "I'm surprised you haven't crashed and burned with all the late nights you've done so far."

Adam laughed. He looked behind him to the empty indoor pools, out to where the water was beginning to die down and become calm once again. He was thankful he wasn't signed up for cleaning duty tonight. "Is that everyone?"

"Tristan shooed the remainder out a few minutes ago." Adrienne replied. "They're probably still in the change room."

Both Adam and Adrienne's head snapped up at the same time. They gave each other a panicked look. They both knew the sound had come from the upstairs viewing balcony and though neither one of them had heard the noise in real life they instantly knew what it was.

A gunshot.

"Wait here, call 911." Adam told Adrienne. He could see Tristan in the pool area, crouched down head in his arms, obviously having thought he was being shot at. He pushed open the door and sprinted up the steps stone steps and onto the balcony.

The blood was everywhere. Dark, rich, red. Splattered all over the floor in a random array. Who would have thought a single person could bleed so much.

Adam's eyes fell onto the girl. Her eyes were tightly closed; a scared expression on her dead face, one that knew the shot was coming. One side of her dark black hair was matted with an even darker glistening shade of blood. But what was even more shocking was the boy with the blood-stained shirt that was cradling the young girl in his arms, clutching a handgun in one fist. He looked up at Adam. The moment their gazes met, Adam found his voice once again.

"What happened here?" He demanded. "What have you done!"

* * *

The detective's footsteps echoed on the metal staircase. He wandered through the various shelves until he found the empty spot he was looking for and slid the paper box into that space. He took a step back and looked at the writing on the rough white surface: April '04. Huang, V. He had come across his fair share of young murder victims, but each one still struck a different chord in his heart. Taking a black marker out of his pocket, he wrote "CLOSED" on the lid of the box.

Victoria Huang was only 19, just finished her second year of University. She was just beginning her life. Who knew what potentials she could have held in the palm of her hand? It was a life that had been tragically cut way too short.

He sighed and forced himself to turn around and walk away. They had caught the person responsible for her cruel murder and justice had prevailed once again. Though it didn't bring Victoria back for her grieving parents and friends, it was the next best thing to know that her killer was going to rot away behind prison bars.

* * *

**_Disclaimer:_** Usual disclaimer stuff. I don't own any of the CC characters, they belong to CBS.

**_Author's Note:_** I don't know exactly what will become of this story, in a way I'm considering this fanfic as sort of an experiment. But I figure since I still have the inspiration to write this story, might as well keep on writing it. If you could please let me know what you think…I'd really appreciate it. Thank you!


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_Present Day_

She was a seemingly normal girl. Lily estimated she was in her early twenties, probably with twenty three being the maximum age mark. She had jet black hair that fell past her graceful slender shoulders but the bangs were kept out of her face by a single silver snap clip at the top of her head. One of her colleagues passed in front of the young girl and her hair magically became shorter, her thin face and eyes displaying a more naïve expression. A second later the girl's hair was two years longer and her eyes were faded and worn out. She gave a friendly smile as Lily sat down on the edge of the desk and Jeffries pulled up a chair beside her. "I'm Detective Lily Rush and this is Detective Jeffries. Can we help you with something?"

"Well, my name's Allison. Allison Channing." The girl replied quietly. "I um, my boyfriend's name is Joshua…Joshua Phillips. He was convicted of killing a girl last year."

"Victoria Huang, his classmate" Jeffries replied. "I know that story. I have a nephew that went to the Philadelphia State University."

"Right." Allison agreed. "That's what everyone else thought, though that story has never sat well with me. I knew Josh; he was the kind of guy that everyone loved. He would have never had the guts to hurt a fly, let alone kill another human being." She dug into the black handbag that sat on her lap and pulled out a rumpled newspaper article and handed it to Lily. "I'm sure everyone still remembers this shocker story."

"It certainly was a shocker story." Jeffries replied as Lily showed him the article. "Philadelphia State hasn't had any kind of death for the past three decades and suddenly four homicides show up in two years, the last three having been committed by serial killer Thomas Jefferson Granger."

"I remember him." Lily replied as her eyes scanned over the familiar article. "Killed two girls and a guy, all University students and all because they wore those rubber wristbands showing their support for various causes. They're still the rage nowadays."

"But not just any wristband." Allison pointed out. "It was those bright orange ones that called for the prevention of suicide. Lord knows what ticked Thomas Jefferson Granger off about those particular ones. I…uh…it didn't really click with me, until I came across this picture a few days ago….I made a copy of it…" Another dig into the black bag and Allison showed Lily and Jeffries a slightly crumpled picture.

Lily took the portrait from her.

"It's a picture of Josh and Victoria on the last day of class at the beginning April." Allison explained. "They met in one English class at the beginning of the school year and found they had signed up for another one together when the new term came in January. That's how Josh was…he always liked taking pictures of people he met as memory just in case he never saw them again."

Lily and Jeffries smiled at the two young adults smiling back at them, arms casually slung around each other's shoulders looking like the best of friends. Josh was blonde haired, blue eyed, tall and slender paired with a million watt smile that would have made a million girls faint. Victoria was a bit shorter and a little more heavily built with her black hair tied back in a tight ponytail, her brown eyes sparkling behind a pair of glasses and a smile on her own face. In essence it was a picture of two kids excited at what their future would hold. By the date on the picture, it was only a few weeks before both of their lives were changed forever.

"What caught my eye was what Victoria was wearing on her right arm."

Both Lily and Jeffries took a second look. There, hanging very loosely around Victoria's skinny wrist was a bright orange band.

"I didn't go to the University myself, but Josh told me they handed those out for free one day in the libraries back before the December exams." Allison almost smiled to herself from the memory. "And Lord knows why, but Victoria never took hers off though not that many people wore those at the time."

"The first of the serial killings happened in June of that year." Jeffries recalled. "Put the whole campus back into a panic."

"So you're thinking that maybe Victoria was the unknown first victim?" Lily asked, still peering at the picture. "That somehow Granger saw the bracelet she wore and that ticked him off?"

Allison nodded. "And somehow Josh ended up in the crossfire and was blamed for everything."

Lily and Jeffries exchanged glances. As far as they knew the Victoria Huang case was closed, the mystery was solved, her killer was behind bars and justice was served. Joshua Phillips had been tried, convicted and found guilty of murdering his classmate and possibly one of his good friends.

"You do realize that we usually try to put the guilty person in jail." Lily said slowly and carefully. "Very rarely do we end up getting someone out."

Allison noticed the looks that had been exchanged between the two detectives. "Have you ever had a gut feeling Det. Rush, that the person you had committed was really innocent? But there was not a damn thing you could do about that because all the evidence somehow pointed towards them?"

Lily and Jeffries exchanged another look.

"I know the chances of a miracle are slim." Allison confessed. "But I know Josh and I still love him. He would have never done anything like this. All I'm asking for…is another look at this case."

"We'll try." Lily assured her. "But that's all that we can promise."

* * *

**_Disclaimer: _**Usual stuff. Don't own any CC characters, they belong to CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer.

**_Author's Note:_ **Thank you to my first reviewer, **Mysterious Meli**, hopefully this chapter will help make more sense as to how the story can be continued? I also hope it's another good chapter for you. I don't know of Jeffries has an actual nephew of that age, and yes, the orange band does actually exist…that's one of my points of inspiration. Thank you.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Scotty trotted down into the vault and saw that Lily had already beaten him to locating the case file. The box was open and most of its contents were already spread out on the table in a massive pile of files and typed up notes.

"Hey, so this is the Huang case." Scotty said as he picked up a file and started to scan the contents. "Have you found anything out so far?"

"Most of it coincides with the general media reports." Lily replied absentmindedly as she flipped through pages and pages of notes. "Pretty straightforward. A couple of witness accounts, list of people interviewed, and a case was made on circumstantial evidence. The jury found Joshua Phillips guilty of first degree murder within less than two hours."

"It's a pretty solid case of circumstantial evidence Lil." Scotty pointed out as he read over the scene notes. "Murder weapon was found at the scene of the crime with Josh's fingerprints all over it plus the fact that he was there himself and his shirt stained with Victoria's blood. Heck if I was on the jury I would have found him guilty myself."

"But the eyewitness account showed Josh holding the gun in the palm of his hand." Lily read on. "If Josh had been the one who fired the shot it would have been more logical to have seen his finger on the trigger."

"He could have dropped the gun in shock and then picked it back up again but didn't have time to bolt."

"Then why was he found holding her body?"

"Maybe he was going to dispose of it?"

"If he was going to do that, why kill her in such a public place?" Lily rummaged around the box and found a map of the Philadelphia State University campus with the Aquatic Center circled with a thick red marker. "Even if the employees somehow didn't notice anything, the pool is still in the middle of campus. Its right beside the Student Union Building and a block away from the bus loop. Somebody would have spotted him. It wasn't that late at night."

"Do you have a better theory?"

"His girlfriend seems insistent that Victoria was killed by Thomas Jefferson Granger and Josh was just there at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"It's a pretty thin theory that this Josh guy got caught in the crossfire." Scotty pointed out. "If it really was Thomas Granger who killed her then why would he drop the murder weapon and leave behind a witness that could have picked him out of a line-up?"

Heavy footsteps thudded down the metal staircase. A second later Stillman appeared around the corner and surveyed the mass of papers spread out on the table. "What have we got so far?"

"A funny case if you ask me." Lily replied. "From every angle we can think of, there are loopholes and other probabilities that are equally likely."

Stillman nodded thoughtfully. "What has been Josh's version of all of this?"

"That's another funny thing." Lily replied as she picked up another file out of the mess. "He only proclaimed his innocence once. Hasn't said a word about any part of the case since then."

"Not one?"

"Nope. Didn't even testify in the trial."

"Well go have a talk with Joshua Phillips." Stillman instructed. "Somebody should go and talk to Thomas Jefferson Granger and see if he has a confession to make and re-interview any old witnesses. We should also talk to Victoria's parents and let them know their child's case just got a new angle."

"Right boss."

* * *

Jeffries pushed open the door and the familiar smell of warmth and chlorine greeted him. Bright multicoloured papers were pinned up all over the bulletin boards advertising the latest swimming classes and accessories, and the occasional textbook selling. Worn and faded brown couches on either side of the building were empty for now, but Jeffries could just imagine the number of sleeping students they must have endured day after day during the school year. He walked up to the yellow counter and pressed the bell for assistance.

A young blonde hair girl in a Philadelphia State t-shirt greeted him. "May I help you?"

"Yes, actually. I am Detective Jeffries, and I was wondering if an Adam Raine is still working here."

"Yes he is." She said brightly. "I'll go and get him for him for you. It'll just be a minute."

"Thank you." Jeffries said, temporarily brightened by the girl's positive outlook.

A few minutes later a side door opened and Adam walked up beside Jeffries. He was a skinny boy twenty three or twenty four years old, easily over six feet tall with a mass of dark brown curls atop of his head and the same shade of eyes to match which somehow did not match his bright yellow t-shirt with the word "lifeguard" printed on in bright blue letters. Jeffries blinked and Adam still looked the same except the dark mass of curls had been transformed into a shorter set of spikes with golden highlights. "I heard you were looking for me?"

"Det. Jeffries, Philadelphia homicide." Jeffries flashed the student his badge. "I read you were one of the few witnesses to the killing of Victoria Huang."

Adam sighed and leaned against the counter for support. "It's been a year and the memories are as fresh as yesterday. I still wake up in a cold sweat some nights."

"What do you remember about that event?"

Adam shrugged and crossed his arms. "Pretty much what I told the police back then, and any reporters that wanted a story. I was with my colleagues; we were in the process of closing up when we heard the gunshot from the balcony upstairs. I told Adrienne to call the police while I sprinted up, and that's when I saw Josh, a gun in his hand, holding Victoria in his arms."

"Apparently you yelled at Josh and convinced him to put down the gun." Jeffries noted. "That was pretty brave of you. He could have tried to take your life as well."

"I guess I wasn't really thinking at that moment. I mean I was thinking…but it was like someone else had taken over." Adam confessed.

"Did you notice either one of them going upstairs? What they might have looked like, angry, scared, etc?"

Adam shook his head. "We might glance at a person coming in, but if they're going upstairs we usually don't pay too much attention. A lot of students trample up there especially in the wintertime because the pool's so warm. There's another door on the other side of the building where students can enter, so there's a chance we may never see them."

"Any chance you may have known either one of them outside of the incident? Were they in any of your classes for example?"

Another shake of the head. "No, not exactly. They looked like first or second years; I was completing my fourth."

"Not exactly?"

An uneasy expression came over the boy's face as he stared at the ugly brown tiles of the floor, shifting his weight from either leg. "I recognized both of them from before. It was back in late November, I remember because I was having a huge craving for coffee that day and I got envious when I saw the two of them walk upstairs both with coffees in their hands."

Jeffries raised his eyebrows slightly as he took out a pen and started jotting down notes in his black notebook.

"Silly reason, I know."

"I'm not here to judge about that." Jeffries replied. "What else do you remember?"

Adam's forehead wrinkled slightly as he thought. "They went up there, happy, chatting about whom knows what, stayed up there for about an hour and a half, maybe two. But it was when they came back down that the real tension showed itself."

_November 2003_

_"Hey, just as long as you did like we rehearsed up there, you'll do fine." Josh instructed as he and Victoria trampled down the tiled staircase.  
"It's always different when you're actually performing in front of people who you know are looking at you." Victoria said nervously. Then a smile came over her face. "Not like we spent all our time rehearsing for our English project up there. We had a lot of slacking off time."  
__Josh laughed for her. "No, that was quote unquote relaxing time. But it was fun, we got a lot of work done, and we learned a lot about each other. I liked that."__  
"So did I." the girl said as she smiled back, almost shyly. A half panicked expression came over her face as the two stepped down the last step and found themselves in the lobby. She dug into her jean pocket and pulled out a small vibrating cell phone. She flipped the phone open and checked the caller i.d. After hesitating for a few seconds, she pushed a button and the call automatically went through to her voicemail. She closed the phone and put it back into her pocket.__  
"Who was that?" Josh asked out of curiosity.__  
She shrugged. "Just some guy named Stephen. We went to the same high school."__  
"That's cool with me." Josh shrugged. "Aren't you going to call him back?"__  
Victoria shrugged again. "No, not really. He never called me back right away when I used to call him, so why should I start now? Cynical I know, but that's how I feel."__  
"I still think you should call him." Josh said. Victoria shrugged and started to walk away. "Victoria? Are you listening to me? Call him!" In one swift motion Josh grabbed Victoria's arm and swung her back to face him.__  
"Why are you caring so much?" she demanded.__  
"Why aren't you caring more?" Josh's ice blue eyes glittered dangerously.__  
"Let's just drop this subject, alright? We have class to go to." Victoria said coldly. She wrenched her arm out of his group and hurried out of the door. _

Present Day

"Frankly I was a bit scared for her safety when he grabbed her arm like that. It certainly looked like he was capable of snapping at any given moment." Adam shivered and crossed his arms even tighter over his chest as if a sudden wind chill had picked up in the warm lobby. "She should have stayed away from him in my opinion, but a few days later they were back here again, rehearsing or doing whatever they were doing."

"And you never told the police about this incident?" Jeffries inquired.

Adam shrugged. "It never seemed relevant. As far as I or anybody else was concerned, this Josh guy was caught red-handed. I don't see how anybody else could have pulled the trigger; they had all the evidence they needed."

Jeffries scribbled the last of his notes down onto the pad and closed it. "Thank you Adam. We'll be in touch." He gave the boy his card before walking out.

* * *

**_Disclaimer:_** Since I'm too lazy to write this for every chapter…please note that from henceforth this disclaimer applies: I don't own the characters of CC, they belong to CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer. I only own the characters of the victim, witnesses, relatives/friends of victim…you get the idea.

**_Author's Note:_** Thank you for all the wonderful reviews I got! Thank you **kawaii-peach14** and **Mysterious Meli.**

To **Mysterious Meli:** Yup, I have a Scotty appearance here and I'll have Nick appear soon as well. I'm trying my best to give everyone equal "screen" time, and hopefully it will work.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Stillman sat stiffly on the worn green couch and glanced at his surroundings without trying to appear like he was snooping. It was a run down but comfortable white-walled grey carpeted living room, with two armchairs that matched the couch's darky mossy green tone. A small TV and entertainment set lined the far side of the room beside the dusty brick fireplace. On the wall to his left sat a wooden coloured cabinet filled with pictures of Victoria at every age imaginable. A few of the pictures were with friends and or family, but for the most part it was Victoria by herself from the curious wide-eyed baby to the intelligent looking teenage girl dressed up in a cap and gown for her high school graduation.

Stillman quickly got up and shook hands with Mr. Huang. Though he still wore the same clothes, a pair of worn sweatpants and a tattered sweater, an astonishing amount of grey and wrinkles had crept into his appearance in the past year. Even though he was considered to be a smaller shorter man, his daughter's death had caused him to shrink even more from the grief. If Mr. Huang and Victoria had sat side by side, the whole world would have known they were father and daughter.

"Lieutenant Stillman." Mr. Haung said warmly. "Thank you for taking the time to come here personally." He motioned for Stillman to sit back down again while Mrs. Huang appeared with a small tray of refreshments and set them down onto the dark brown square coffee table. The couple each sat in an armchair.

"It is the least I can do: I just wanted to know that we've had a new lead and the team is going to take another look at Victoria's case." Stillman said.

"A new lead?" Mrs. Huang repeated. "What exactly are you implying? That Joshua Phillips did not murder our daughter?"

"That may be the case."

"Then who exactly is a suspect this time around?"

Stillman took a mental breathe before he continued. "Our theory is that Thomas Granger may be a possible candidate."

Mr. Haung leaned back in the armchair and closed his eyes while Mrs. Huang leaned forward and pursed her lips together.

"That might be better." She said quietly, unable to meet Stillman's eye. "Joshua always seemed like a nice boy."

"Have you ever met him?"

"Him? No. I've never met any of her classmates from Philadephia State." Mrs. Huang replied.

"Anybody else you know that might have wanted to hurt her? Any problems she might have had?"

"No, nobody at all." Mrs. Huang said quickly. Her tone gave off her disbelief. "So there were times when she wasn't happy, but never anything out of the ordinary. In general she was one of the happiest people. If there was anything or anyone bothering her she would have let us know."

"It's been almost two years...she would have been twenty-one by now." Mr. Huang said suddenly, opening his eyes. "And after all this time…all this grieving you're telling us that the man I had grown to hate because I thought he murdered my daughter, may not deserve my hate after all?"

"Yes." Stillman said. He could not think of anything else to say.

Mr. Huang closed his eyes again and took a deep breathe. "Then I pray Lieutenant Stillman, that your team finds the absolute truth."

"Don't worry." Stillman assured him. "We're following every possible lead and angle. We'll find your daughter's killer."

* * *

Lily sat on the hard white bench while Scotty paced around the metal cage of a room trying to calm his nerves. Nothing could happen to them there, not in the prison, guards would be watching over them on full alert. Yes, Thomas Jefferson Granger was a convicted serial killer, but he wouldn't try to hurt him or Lily, would he? Neither one of them wore the deadly bright orange band. Though maybe the mere mention of that accessory would be enough for Granger to kill again. Scotty shuddered at the thought. No, he had to be more like Lily. Cool, calm, collected.

The metal gate swung open and in shuffled Thomas Jefferson Granger in a bright orange suit, handcuffs and leg shackles. To Scotty's surprise Thomas didn't look like the aging, elderly man with grey hair and a wrinkled face that he had originally pictured. Instead, Thomas seemed to be in his mid 20's, crew cut light brown hair and a tall, slightly bulky physique. He seemed more like somebody's charming associate professor, teaching assistant or grad student rather than a serial killer. He seemed like anything but a serial killer. That was probably how he managed to kill so many.

"Thomas Granger? I'm Detective Lily Rush and this is my partner Detective Scotty Valens." Lily said calmly.

Thomas slowly sat down on the hard white bench. "You police put me in here for life, I always thought you'd just close the door, lock it and throw away the key. Never imagined I'd have officers visiting me again."

"Well we're here because we have more questions to ask you."

"Such as?"

"Did you ever come across the girl in this picture?" Lily opened the file folder and took out the picture of Josh and Victoria that Allison had left for them.

Thomas glanced at the picture and stared at the young girl. "Nope, I never saw her before."

"You sure?"

"I don't see how this has to do with anything."

"You might want to take a closer look at what she's got on her wrist, Thomas." Scotty advised as he strolled around the room. "Are you sure you don't recognize her face?"

Thomas stared at the picture that was still in the fingers of Lily's outstretched, unwavering hand. His eyes stopped at the wristband for a few seconds. Lily and Scotty both saw the muscles in his jaw tighten.

"No I don't recognize her face." Thomas said at last.

"Oh don't play dumb with us, we know you're special signature is killing all those who wear that identical orange wristband." Lily said sharply.

"Victoria died in April; the next girl died in June of that year. The only connection between those two girls was the fact that both wore that same wristband. If that doesn't look suspicious, I don't know what does." Scotty added.

"It's a coincidence, that's all." Thomas insisted.

"Come on, you're already in here for life, another confession's not going to make much of a difference." Lily said sweetly, leaning forward and resting her chin on the palm of one hand. "What was Victoria to you? Just some naïve girl that ticked you off because she was wearing the wrong bracelet? Maybe that classified her as a bitch? A snob? So by that logic you had to get rid of her?"

"NEVER!" Thomas screamed.

Slightly caught off guard by the single sudden outburst, Lily involuntarily jerked backwards and found Scotty's reassuring hand on her shoulder. She caught the eye of a tense guard standing just past the metal fence-like door and gave him a small nod to reassure him that everything was still under control and that the two of them were alright.

Across the table Thomas struggled to bring his heavy breathing back down to normal. He looked at Lily with wild eyes, trying to shoot spitfire and fury from those brown irises.

"I told you." Thomas said wearily as his breathing returned to normal. "I never saw her in my life."

Lily knew that was all she was going to get out of Thomas. "Thank you Mr. Granger, that will be all for today. We'll have another chat soon." She signalled for the guard to come and escort Thomas back to his cell. It was only after the door had banged shut that Scotty realized he still had his hand upon Lily's shoulder.

"Uh, right, that was…uhm, somewhat productive." Scotty said a bit sarcastically as he quickly yanked his hand back, praying she hadn't noticed the lingered presence.

Lily gathered up the files and closed her notebook. "Well at least we know he's more than capable of snapping." She said calmly.

The two exited the interrogation cage and made their way back to the front desk. "I don't think we're going to get anymore out of him Lil." Scotty said. "He's not going to admit anything to the police anymore, not even what he had for breakfast. We've hit a dead end with this one."

"Then we'll just have to continue on with our other leads." She replied.

"I know he's hiding something." Lily continued confidently. "We just have to find out what."

* * *

**_Author's Note: _**Of course, a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed, **kawaii-peach14**, **Mysterious Meli, Pen and MaryRose!** Please keep those reviews coming guys! New reviewers are always welcome! ) It lets me know people are actually reading my story.

Pen: Hopefully this has been a good sliver of Lily time. Though I'm not too good at slipping in comedy, I'll try my best to give Vera some good lines. Hopefully I can pull it off.

Mysterious Meli: Yeah I'm trying to make this case somewhat complicated. But hopefully I won't confuse everyone with the complications (including myself!) lol.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Vera and Jeffries watched Joshua Phillips shuffle into the interrogation room. The twenty-two year old looked exactly the same as his twenty year old self: he still had the short blonde hairstyle, perhaps a little shaggier with age, and the same slightly muscular build. However, the million dollar smile was gone and a pair of dull but still stunning blue eyes surveyed the two detectives without much emotion. He sat down at the table quietly and waited.

"Joshua Phillips? I'm Detective William Jeffries and this is Detective Vera."

The boy swept his eyes over the two figures before lowering it back to the table. "Nice to meet you… I prefer Josh if you don't mind."

"Alright then, Josh." Vera said as he sat down at the opposite end of the white table. "Do you have any idea why we're here?"

Silence.

"We're here to ask you about Victoria Huang." Vera continued.

A flicker of emotion flashed across those ice blue eyes, but Josh blinked quickly and the emotion was gone. "What more could you possibly have to ask on that subject? Everything's over and done. I'm sure you guys have more important things to do."

Vera ignored that last statement. "We have a witness that tells us you were quite…rough with her out of the blue one day. Snapped at her for no reason. How can you explain that?"

"Everybody snaps at one point or another."

"And those people are behind bars just like you."

Josh almost snorted. "Sure."

"And you have no explanation for that?"

Josh focussed all his energy on staring at the bright white tabletop. "I know I was out of line. The next day I apologized for that and she forgave me. I never yelled at her again."

Vera flashed Jeffries a look. As far as they could tell Josh was telling the truth about the apology and it seemed perfectly logical that Victoria would forgive him. But there were more pressing matters in relation to that incident.

"Why did you snap in the first place?" Vera continued his interrogation. "What was it about this Stephen character and Victoria that ticked you off?"

"I was mad because I thought she was being rude and not calling him back right away when she could have." Joshua replied simply. "But she had a reason to be mad. Stephen…he didn't have superb morals if you ask me. He knew Victoria loved him to death in high school, but he still left her hanging and had the nerve to go after her best friend."

Vera let out a low whistle. "What a Romeo."

"If you ask me, he's the one you should be talking to." Josh offered. He looked up and one corner of his mouth twitched, almost as if he was holding back a smile. "But if I were you, I wouldn't waste my time on this investigation. The past is the past. Just let it be. Everyone will be better off."

"That may be so." Jeffries finally spoke up as Vera got up to leave. "She may be dead and gone but at least we can bring closure to her family and friends."

"I'm sorry to have wasted your time detectives." The twenty-two year old said politely as he watched the two men leave.

* * *

Scotty got out of his car and surveyed the suburban scene. Or, at least it was bound to be part of the suburbs within a few short months. There were three or four new houses being added to the block, most of which were still gleaming with a new coat of paint and brand new shingles that would probably be covered with moss in a couple of decades time. But there was one house that was still only half built, a skeleton of a house with the natural wood boards showing through and a dirt road for a driveway, and that was the one that Scotty headed for. He glanced at every worker, but they all showed the faces of strangers. He felt out of place wearing a suit and a black overcoat while everyone else was wearing blue jeans, metal-toed boots and a various assortment of old and dusty t-shirts, but nobody commented. A few workers gave Scotty curious looks, but chose to remain silent.

"Stephen Larsen?" He called out. "Is there a Stephen Larsen here?"

He noticed one man crouched down in a corner with a few stray wires in his mouth carefully tying together two other wires with a pair of pliers. For a guy he would have been considered on the short side though compared to the whole world he was at a good steady height of 5' 8". He was just a young skinny boy, twenty years old with slightly curly dark brown hair cut in a way so most of his bangs were plastered to his forehead. Another worker passed in front of the young boy and he had suddenly aged 2 years. The hair was hidden under a bright yellow construction worker's hat, and the skinny boy was no longer a skinny boy, but one whose face and physique showed experience working in the field of construction.

Upon hearing his name Stephen put up a finger towards Scotty in a "wait just a minute" gesture. Once he finished his job, he stood up and tucked the pliers and stray wires into his tool belt and sauntered over to the detective. "Can I help you?"

"Detective Valens, Philadelphia homicide." Scotty flashed his badge. "I'm here to ask you about Victoria Huang."

A slightly burly looking guy clapped a heavy hand on Stephen's shoulder. "Are you taking a break now?"

Stephen mumbled something about going on his fifteen before he numbly led Scotty over to a patch of dirt away from the house and the workers. "Victoria…I never thought I'd hear that name from the police again."

"We're taking another look at the case, and your name came up."

"How?"

"Let's just say she diverted your call to her voicemail."

"I always thought she did that." Stephen said as he stuffed his hands into the pocket of his torn jeans. "Didn't take a genius to figure that out…why I suddenly wasn't getting a hold of her anymore."

"So why did she hate you that much?"

"She didn't hate me." Stephen said a little too quickly and a little too loudly.

"Of course, we always ignore the people we like and want to talk to." Scotty said, not bothering to hold back any sarcasm he felt.

Stephen's shoulder's sagged in defeat. "What do you want to know?"

"Why she didn't talk to you to you." Scotty replied. "Cause from the way I see it, maybe you got mad that Victoria wasn't paying attention to you anymore, so if you couldn't have her attention, nobody could."

"What?"

"Or maybe she came to you, finally angry that you were going after her best friend instead of her so you had no choice but to teach her a lesson."

"Are you insane?" Stephen nearly shouted. It took him a split second to collect himself and he continued in a quieter tone. "Look, I was a lot of things back then, jerk included. But I was _not_ a murderer. She never got mad at me; she still treated me like a friend in the very least. I had to respect that."

"As much as I like to think I was part of everything, I was never really a member of their 'inner circle.' That included just her, her best Katie, Ryan and Mike." Stephen continued. "The last time I saw Victoria herself was about four months before she died. We had a party to celebrate New Years."

"Was there anyone else that was angry at Victoria? Wanted to hurt her in some way?"

"Yeah." Stephen replied quickly. "He was at the party."

_December 31, 2003_

_It was a small affair at Katie's house, certainly not like those parties portrayed on the media with a hundred or two hundred teens/young adults thinking the perfect way to celebrate was to get drunk or do drugs or make out. There wasn't too much alcohol, less making out and certainly no drugs would have been found within a ten mile radius. The hundred or so teenagers were in reality five young adults, four of whom had spent most of their high school lives together joined with Stephen who more or less at times felt like the outsider looking in._

_But all he could feel was awe. He had never been inside of Katie's house before. Unlike Victoria and her family, Katie's family was a little better off, a little more meticulous with cleaning and keeping up appearances, a little less worried whether their money was going to go to all the places it needed to go. Instead of the usual white the walls the living room bore a warm and inviting yellowish hue flanked by a grand fireplace that was usually unused. Two matching brown couches lined one full corner of the room while on the other side of the grand fireplace rested a TV that was tuned into a local channel that repeatedly showed footage of a local celebration counting down the hours until the New Year. A stereo system in a hidden part of the house could be heard faintly blaring rock music._

_Stephen walked over to the girl sitting on the corner of the fireplace with a bottle of beer in one hand._

_"Hey." He said. "Are you imagining the fireplace is warming your back right now?"_

_Victoria looked up at him and almost laughed. "Hey Stephen. Sit." She motioned to the empty space beside her._

_"Is there any beer left?"_

_"In the fridge. And there's plenty."_

_ Stephen opened a bottle for himself and sat down beside his friend. "So how's life going for you? I know it's been forever and I never seem to be able to catch you on your time off anymore. I guess you don't answer your cell as often as you used to."_

_"Yeah I know. I guess I've just been real busy." Victoria gave a smile, but the bitterness was unnoticed by the guy sitting beside her._

_Another figure quickly entered the room and made his way straight towards the couple. "Victoria, I want a word with you. Alone." His voice was stiff and cold and his blue eyes flashed dangerously._

_"Hey Mike, nice to see you too." Victoria said sarcastically. She put her empty bottle down onto the brick fireplace and stood up. She followed him around the corner where the two began talking, unaware that they were still in earshot range of Stephen._

_"So have you done what I've asked you to do?" Mike demanded._

_Silence._

_"Oh for heaven's sake Victoria!"_

_"Ssh…quiet down, everyone will hear."_

_"What? You're actually afraid of what might happen? Well then you should have thought of the consequences first before you decided to pull off a stunt like this!" A loud thud could be heard, perhaps that of a fist slamming against a wall, but Stephen couldn't be sure._

_Mike sighed, and Victoria was silent once again._

_"Victoria." Mike said firmly. "We've been friends for all these years, but this time you've really stepped over the line. I didn't ask for much from you, just that one little thing and you couldn't even have the stomach to do that didn't you?"_

_"Look, I don't know what else to say Mike, except to give it some time." Victoria said quietly. "Just give it some time and everything will be alright."_

_"It better." Mike said quickly, perhaps too quickly. "Or else you'll force me to do something I don't want to do."_

Present Day

"Do you have any idea what Mike was so mad about?"

Stephen shook his head. "Look, like I told you before, there were only 4 members of the 'inner circle' and I wasn't one of them. But from what I know, I've never heard Mike so mad in my life."

"Mad enough to kill?"

"Personally I think anybody can be mad enough to do that. Somebody just has to cross a line."

"And maybe Victoria crossed Mike's." Scotty finished.

"Possibly." Stephen agreed.

"Are you sure she didn't cross yours?"

"Never. I was at work the day she was murdered; ask around, they can back me up." Stephen shifted his weight uncomfortably from one leg to the other. "Look, I know what you're thinking but she was one of the best friends I ever had. When I told everyone I wanted to become an electrician, they all laughed at me. Except for Victoria, she believed in me. I just wish she could have seen…"

Scotty unconsciously looked away as he handed Stephen his card. "We'll be in touch." He walked away before he saw a tear slide down Stephen's cheek.

* * *

**_Author's Note:_** Thank you for all your reviews! Please keep them coming! I beg of you! Please please PLEASE keep them coming! )

_** Sarah**:_ Thank you for being such a faithful reader, and first time reviewer! And no, that didn't sound corny at all to me. I'm so happy to hear the case is so intriguing to you and I hope it'll continue to be as intriguing, and I hope you'll continue to review! Thanks!

**_ kawaii-peach14:_** Thank you for reviewing! Please keep it up!


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

It was the usual busy morning at the station with people weaving in between the monotone grey desks; phones were ringing off the hook, painting a picture of organized chaos as Lily liked to think of it. Vera and Jeffries were sitting at a desk trying to find the latest address of Mike, but so far no luck. And Scotty was off at his own desk doing…what was he doing? Lily pushed those thoughts out of her mind as she saw Stillman approach the team. His look gave away everything. He wanted an update.

"Any luck on getting Josh to talk?"

"Nope." Vera replied as he stood up stiffly and stretched, already feeling the fatigue of sitting in front of a computer for too long. "Nothing except to say we should go and interview Stephen Larsen."

"Which we did." Scotty piped up from his desk. "I checked out his alibi: clean and solid. He was working all day when Victoria was killed. Clocked out at 8 p.m. She was long gone by then."

The rest of the team debated on all the facts they had collected so far. Besides Josh being the obvious guilty party, there was a slim chance that somebody could have paid him off to perform the deadly hit or done it themselves forcing Josh to watch in the process. Stephen had a weak motive (but a motive nonetheless) but his now solid-alibi discredited that. Thomas Granger wasn't looking too good either: so far they had to take his word and conclude he had never seen Victoria before in his life.

"I think this Mike character may end up being the doer." Jeffries said.

"Why do you say that?" Lily asked.

"By Stephen's account he sounded pretty angry at whatever Victoria had done to offend him. They sounded like a tight-knit group. The tighter the group, the deeper the wounds."

"Any luck finding this Mike's whereabouts?" Stillman asked.

Jeffries and Vera shook their heads and the rest of the team felt their hearts sink in despair. Stephen had given them a last name too: Smith. There must have been a billion Mike or Michael Smiths in the state of Pennsylvania alone. Stillman ended the meeting with instructions for them to keep searching for Mike Smith and to keep working on Josh and Thomas Granger. Everyone else picked up the respective tasks pretty easily, leaving Lily a few moments of peace. Within a heartbeat, she found her mind wandering back to the events that had happened only yesterday.

True, she was no stranger to people snapping at her, (it was part of the job description really) and she was proud to do it as long as it got the truth out of whomever she was questioning. But this time she had been unprepared, caught off guard somehow. That was not the Lily Rush everyone else knew. That was not the Lily Rush she had always felt herself to be.

It was Scotty that had come in her split moment of need. He had backed her up, supported her. But it was how he did it that really surprised her though she had tried hard to hide it after the initial moment had passed. Her mind wandered over to her last words with Granger. Had she let her voice quiver? Had she remained strong, cool, collected?

Lily absentmindedly touched her right shoulder with her left hand as she stared at her desk and wrote gibberish on her pad. Her fingers lightly grazed the plain blue fabric of her blouse. Ridiculous as she felt, Lily could still feel his warm, strong, reassuring hand on her shoulder. She hadn't even noticed he was behind her until Thomas had snapped. It was such a simple touch, but at the same time it felt like it meant a million different things. It was full of care and compassion, something that Lily had always noticed about Scotty but had never come to terms with it in her mind.

Until now.

Why now?

A hand came down on her other shoulder making Lily jump.

"Whoa, sorry." Scotty said, snapping his hand back as if he had been electrocuted. "Didn't realize I could scare you so much."

"Yeah well what do you want?" Lily said quickly. As soon as those words were out of her mouth she wished she could take them back. She had hoped to appear calm and collected, but instead those words came across cold and cruel.

Scotty's brow wrinkled in a second of confusion over the coldness in Lily's voice before he shook his head as if trying to clear the memory. He motioned over to a young girl nervously standing beside an empty desk. "I thought you might want to talk to her, she looks like she needs a girl to talk to."

"Oh. Right." Lily said absentmindedly again as she shuffled through her papers and discovered she had nothing to tidy up. She watched Scotty's retreating back for a split second before mentally clearing her mind and going over to talk to the mysterious new girl that had showed up.

"Can I help you?" Lily asked the girl. She was young and skinny, decked out in a pair of stylish denim jeans and a matching jean jacket. She had a thin and pale face flattered by a pair of bright of brown eyes and kept twirling a lock of long wavy brown hair around one finger. One blink later the girl turned twenty one and had decided to straighten her brown locks making them fall down almost to her elbows.

"Yes…I mean, I hope so." The girl ran a hand through her hair, causing her locks to be swept backwards only to fall back into place once again. "Mr. and Mrs. Huang called me and said that you guys were looking into the case once again. My name is Katie. I want to help, in any way I can."

"Nice to meet you." Lily exchanged a handshake with Katie. "My colleagues and I were just in need of some information. You wouldn't happen to know Michael Smith's last whereabouts, would you?"

Though Katie hadn't seen Mike in almost a year, she did have an address and could only hope that he had not changed residences. Yet she couldn't think of a reason why the homicide team would want information on Mike, one of their closest friends.

"We think he was angry at Victoria for some reason, a reason that was brought up during your New Years Party." Lily began.

"So what are you saying?" Katie asked. "That Mike had something to do with Victoria's death?"

The look on Lily's face was all Katie needed to get started.

"Why are you so concerned with something that Mike or any of us did?" Katie replied, almost angrily. "The one you should be concentrating on is that Joshua guy!"

"You said you wanted to help." Lily pointed out.

"Yeah I wanted to help—help the police keep Josh behind bars and make sure this case is sealed shut for good." Katie replied coldly.

Lily gave a smile, trying to remain civil. "We just have to look at all angles. In the beginning everyone is a suspect, and we follow through with an investigation to narrow down that list."

"_What_ list!" Katie cried. "Josh was caught red handed with the gun. What more evidence could you possibly want!"

"Then in that case, you shouldn't have any reason to hide anything you or Michael did."

Katie glared at Lily, trying to stare her down. But as always, Lily was in no mood to play games. She had come into this job, this career, this section of the police department wanting to make a difference, to seek justice for those who had lost all hope. It peeved her more than anything to be told on how she _should_ advocate her justice even when those methods were plainly wrong. Though Katie's glare was formidable, it was no match to the cold look of the legendary Lily Rush.

Katie eventually sat back, exhausted. "Look, Det Rush. I was Victoria's best friend, and I would have known if anything was wrong. Josh killed her, I know he did."

Lily remained silent but kept up her formidable stare.

Katie sighed and finally admitted defeat. "What do you want to know?" she whispered.

"All the possible reasons Mike could have been angry at Victoria, no matter how small."

* * *

When Lily rejoined her colleagues, she had quite the classical high school drama story to tell. According to Katie, back in Grade 12 the four of them had given each other gag gifts to celebrate the end of high school. Mike's combination of gag gifts included a princess tiara, a bright pink feather boa and a sparkly fairy wand. In good spirits Mike had put on all his gag gifts and pranced around the room letting Victoria take pictures of him, since she happened to have her camera with her that day.

The rest of the team smiled as they each imagined their own version of a grown seventeen year old boy jumping around the room wearing the standard little girl princess apparel while his friends laughed and took pictures.

"So…Mike got mad that Victoria took the pictures of him?" Jeffries concluded.

"Not right away." Lily answered. "But a few weeks later she got the pictures developed, showed them around to all their friends thus making Mike blow his top."

Vera let out a low whistle. "Not too keen on showing his feminine side I take it."

"But Victoria was killed two years later." Scotty pointed out. "Would Mike be the type of person to keep a grudge for that long?"

Lily smiled confidently and leaned back against the corner of her desk. "According to Katie, he is."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Thank you to _Cold Case Chick_ for being my only reviewer! ) If anybody else has read my story, please please please review! Thank you! 


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Scotty was thankful that Vera was willing to do the driving today. Very thankful. His mind kept wandering all over the place and he would have crashed and burned a million times before he reached his destination. But no matter how had he tried, his thoughts always wandered back to one thing.

Lily.

All that time they had worked together, how could he have _not_ noticed her brilliant qualities? Her intelligence, her determination, her passion, and of course her cuteness.

Because. He mentally reminded himself. At first he was with Elisa. And then…

With Christina.

That was probably the worst move he had made. But certainly he had a good reason. He wasn't in the right state of mind...certainly that counted for something. Didn't it? And Chris…well she had always seemed to be there, always seemed to be open with him, comforting him. He had begun to believe it was getting serious, until she disappeared on him, leaving Scotty to run back to the pack with his tail between his legs and the painful knowledge that it had been just a fling between the both of them. It still hurt, knowing it was a ridiculously slim chance that he and Lily were going to go back to the way they used to be.

So why didn't she bite off his hand when he put it on her shoulder?

The first time he didn't even notice until his hand was already on her shoulder. Thomas' snap had surprised them both: that he couldn't deny. It felt like she _knew_ he was standing behind her and had sought his support and backup. It felt like instinct, putting that hand on her shoulder. He absentmindedly glanced at his right hand lying on top of the armrest. He could still feel the curve of her shoulder, how it fit perfectly into his fingers.

Why…why hadn't she bitten off his hand?

Why, why WHY had he gone and put his hand on her shoulder a second time?

"We're here." Vera announced.

Scotty blinked and gave himself a mental slap. We're here to try and solve Victoria's case, not wonder why we've still got two hands. He scolded himself. Getting out of the car, Scotty took a split second to slam the door before taking a look around.

The address Katie had provided led the two detectives to a small gathering of townhouses; all painted the same uncommon combination of pale orange walls and bright baby blue trim with the conventional dark brown shingled roof. Though it was easy to tell all the townhouses were starting to show some wear and tear of old age, it was comforting to know all the present owners generally tried to upkeep their residences and spruce it up in whatever ways they could, usually resorting to such measures as potted plants and working barbeque equipment.

"Looking for Number 181." Vera told him.

Number 181 turned out to have its entranceway on the second floor. The two detectives made their way up the steep but stable set of wooden steps and found themselves on the only patio that boasted one flat of empty beer bottles and another flat of empty Coke cans by the door as the only form of decoration. Vera pressed the doorbell and heard the chimes echo throughout the house.

An eternity later the door cracked open and a nineteen year old boy appeared. At around 5'11" to 6' he didn't seem to be tall, but he certainly wasn't short either. His sandy blonde hair was contrasted by even lighter spikes of hair that stuck stylishly out of his head and his piercing ice-blue eyes gave him an overall impression of mystery. A second later the spikes disappeared and the hair lay in a shorter, flatter mess on the boy's head paired with the same haunting blue eyes. Shirtless and sporting a pair of torn grey sweatpants, the boy had turned twenty-one. He squinted through the sunlight and gave each detective a once over. "Yeah?"

Scotty and Vera exchanged a look. "Michael Smith?"

"I prefer Mike."

"Partying last night?" Vera asked, motioning to the empty bottles and cans.

Mike yawned and stretched. "The bottles were my roommate, who stupidly enough, had to go to work this morning. I worked late last night: what else are you going to do if you come home late and have no work the next day?"

"I'm Detective Scotty Valens and this is Detective Nick Vera." Scotty and Vera flashed the badges. "Philadephia homicide."

"Homicide? Hey, look, I'll only confess to the Coke cans." Mike half joked.

"Ha Ha Ha." Vera said in a monotone voice.

"Give me a break, it's early." Mike sighed. He ran a hand through his hair which only succeeded in making a single lock stand straight up.

"We're here to ask you about Victoria Huang. I'm sure you still remember her."

Mike's half smiling face stoned over. "Of course I remember her. I'll always remember her." He said quietly. "Why are you dragging this thing up again, after all this time?"

"We just had a few questions to ask you."

Mike sighed and threw open the door. "Well you might as well come in considering you've already seen me in my pjs."

Scotty and Vera stepped into the house. It was surprisingly neater than the stereotypical guy house. Passing through the narrow entranceway, the two detectives could see a small open kitchen to their left with a box of cereal open on the counter and random notes stuck on the fridge like "Diane called" and the week's grocery list. To their right was a small living room with a single brown couch opposite a fireplace, a small TV, a rocking chair in one corner and a dusty piano lined up beside the fireplace. Vera took a seat on the couch, Mike chose to sat in the rocking chair while Scotty went over and surveyed the pictures lined up on top of the piano. There was a guy and a girl smiling on the beach whom Scotty assumed to be Mike's roommate and his girlfriend. Another picture showed two sets of family gathering together around the smoking barbeque in someone's backyard. The third one showed Mike, Katie and Victoria smiling and laughing for the camera, arms around each other, dressed up in nice suits and dresses.

"Nice picture." Scotty commented. "Grad?"

Mike nodded. "Happier and simpler times, that's for sure. What would you like to know?"

"We heard you got pretty angry at Victoria during a New Years party, threatened to do something to her that you didn't like, possibly hurt her?"

Mike's eyes widened in complete surprise. "Where did you hear that?"

"That's not important." Vera informed him.

"Look, I was angry." Mike said. "And you say things you don't exactly mean when you are angry."

"Except you got painted as the type of person who could carry on a grudge for a long time." Scotty pointed out. "We heard through the grapevine that you weren't exactly pleased with pictures Victoria took of you prancing around in a tiara and pink feather boa."

"I was mad at her because she showed the pictures to everyone else without my permission." Mike insisted. "It was one of those silly mistakes that everyone makes. A month later she gave me those pictures, said I could do whatever I wanted with them, and apologized."

"When I first got those pictures, I had been thinking of burning them." Mike continued. "But thank goodness I didn't. That's all I have left of her."

"So if you forgave her a month after the incident, why were you so mad at her two years later?" Vera pointed out.

Mike swallowed and stared at the two detectives. "Because by that time I was mad at her from the other bad decisions she decided to make."

_December 27, 2003_

_Mike weaved his way through the densely packed crowd. Boxing Day was almost a thing of the past, now that stores had come up with the oh-so-excellent idea of extending that Boxing Day into Boxing Week. Now the whole world could go through a week of madness instead of one day. Thankfully he had done most of his shopping the day before._

_Walking past a series of clothing shops with huge neon signs advertising the famous Boxing Week discounts, Mike's eyes happened to turn to a small jewellery store. It was certainly nothing fancy, but the white cupboards and display cases and matching tiled floor gave the shop a neat, simple and honest feeling. A quick glance around could easily tell you the place did not sell million dollar engagement rings but rather items that had more of a "Happy Birthday Sweetie" feel to it. Regardless of the fact the 50 percent off signs paled in comparison to the signs of the neighbouring clothing stores, a fair crowd had gathered behind the glass doors._

_One couple in particular caught Mike's attention. To anybody else passing by they would have looked like a picture perfect young couple. The guy and the girl were huddled together over a counter smiling shyly at one another and whatever else they were looking at. After some unheard discussion, the guy put his arm around the girl and gave her shoulder a warm squeeze. Yes, to anybody else it would have been a Kodak moment. But to Mike, it nearly made his heart stop._

_It was Ryan and Victoria._

_As Mike watched, a salesperson approached the two of them and pointed to the display case full of rings. A short conversation followed, the salesperson probably outlining good deals and suggesting they don't pass up such a great offer. Victoria and Ryan thanked the lady and walked out of the store._

_Even among the crowd of people Mike knew there was no way either one of them could miss his presence—he was practically standing in front of the door. The pair stopped short as a variety of emotions flooded both their faces. From what Mike could see, their expressions quickly transformed from surprise and shock to horror and then slight fear._

_"Hey Mike." Victoria said uncertainly. She put on a smile and tried to appear happy and pleased. "Fancy running into you here."_

_"Yeah, you probably should have found somewhere else to go." Mike could feel the coldness creeping into his voice._

_A look of confusion came over her face. "Excuse me?"_

_"What is wrong with you?" Mike demanded to Ryan. "You and Katie have been broken up for what? A month? A month and a half? And already you're cosying up to another girl—her best friend! Out of all people!"_

_Ryan's jaw tightened and he clenched one hand into a fist, but somehow remained silent. Mike wasn't done yet: far from it._

_"I could understand it from your point of view Ryan, you're heartbroken, unable to think straight." Mike's voice cropped in softness but it flared back up again when he glanced at Victoria._

_"But you!" He nearly exclaimed. "You really should have known better! You were supposed to be the sensible one!"_

_A panicked expression came over Victoria's face. "Mike…this isn't what it looks like." She stuttered._

_"Oh yeah, then what does it look like?" Mike countered. "Two people who never wear jewellery just happened to meet up in a jewellery shop?"_

_Victoria opened up her mouth to reply but Ryan quickly grabbed her arm, silencing her. "Victoria." He said. "We…we don't have to explain ourselves to him." For a second there was a look of pleading on Ryan's face and in the tone of his voice. But that soon transformed into a threatening look. He tightened his grip on her arm._

_"Ryan…ouch." Victoria wrestled with Ryan's grip for a few moments before he reluctantly let go._

_"Mike, look." She pleaded. As she started to talk, she kept glancing at Ryan, as if to look for permission from him to say the next few words. "Just…please…give us some time and everything will be better."_

_"What on earth are you talking about?"_

_"I…we…we had wanted to tell you guys." Victoria said carefully. "But we just wanted to make sure everything was sure and set before we broke the news. Please…please don't tell Katie, not yet. We just want to be sure before we break the news to her."_

_Mike shifted his weight uncomfortably between his legs. He hated keeping secrets from his closest friends, and he hated letting his closest friends keep secrets from each other. But there was just something about Victoria's face at that moment. There was so much desperation in her eyes, making it all the harder for him to remain firm and fair._

_"When are you going to tell her?" he finally said in the most neutral voice he could muster._

_"Soon." Victoria promised._

_"How soon?"_

_"The next big get-together we have." Ryan cut in._

Present Day

"The next time we got together was at the New Years party." Mike said. "And big surprise—neither of them said a word, even after I yelled at Ryan as well."

"How threatening did Ryan seem? Was he very protective of his girlfriends?" Scotty asked.

All Mike could do was shrug. "As protective as they come. He's a big sports guy, real competitive. But I never saw him so menacing until that day I ran into him at the mall. He looked like he could have snapped Victoria's arm off like a toothpick."

Vera nodded as he jotted down Ryan's name.

"Are you sure you weren't the one that was so mad at Victoria you decided to finish her off?"

"Me? Victoria was one of my best friends. Never!" Mike cried. "I don't know my way around the State University, heck I barely even know how to _get_ there. If Josh wasn't the one that killed Victoria…I would have to put my money on Ryan."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because he and Victoria are the only ones who got into Philadelphia State." Mike replied coldly. "Ryan's the only other one in our group that would know his way around."

* * *

**Author's Note:** I apologize for the long delay in updates. Hopefully once school is over I'll have time to put up more. A HUGE thank you to all of my reviewers for this chapter, please, please, PLEASE keep them coming! 

_**addicted666:**_ Thank you for your high complements. I'm trying to find a balance between the case and the possible love story between Lily and Scotty. Hopefully I'll pull it off.

_**Max Fuchs:**_ Thank you for putting me on Author Alert. ) I realize this fanfic might run a bit longer than the show but hopefully the ride will still be enjoyable for you.

Many thanks also to _**Sarah** _and_ **Cold Case Chick**_!


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Lily turned around a corner and found herself at the beginning of a dimly lit hallway. There were no sunroofs or windows in this part of the building on campus, only garbage cans, recycling bins and the occasional ratty chair, making Lily feel a bit uneasy since it was such a gorgeous day outside. Vera and Scotty were right; the University was no walk in the park in terms of navigation. If Josh turned out to be innocent, Victoria's killer would have had to have a good knowledge of the campus or at least how to get there. From that point alone, Mike didn't fit the profile. As far as they knew, Ryan and Thomas Granger were the only ones left that did fit. And for now, they had to take Thomas' word and believe that he had never seen Victoria.

The first door she came across had one right nametag—TA: Ryan Moore. She knocked.

"Come in." she heard a voice call. Lily pushed open the door and found herself greeted by a huge wave of sunshine streaming in from the one single large window. The room itself was so small she wondered how it housed four different TAs, much less one. Two matching mahogany desks were lined up on the opposing two walls. The rest of the free space was taken over by boring grey file cabinets and a different assortment of rolling and non-rolling chairs.

There was only one occupant in the room, one guy that was sitting at one of the desks with books open and papers spread everywhere. His flaming red hair was cropped in a short hairstyle and he wore the usual baggy jeans and a white t-shirt. He still looked the exact same at age 21 with the only difference in his clothes: he sported a more mature casual blue striped collared shirt, a plain white t-shirt underneath and more fitted blue jeans. He looked up and smiled at Lily. "Can I help you?"

"Yes. I'm Detective Rush. We spoke on the phone. I'm assuming you're Ryan Moore."

"Oh yes of course." Ryan quickly put his pencil behind his ear and stood up to shake Lily's hand. "Thank you so much for coming out here. It's a nice long break for everybody except TA's. Please, have a seat."

Ryan sat down in his rolling chair and Lily chose a hard plastic stationary one.

"I have to admit I was a bit surprised when you called." Ryan said. He tried to smile but anybody could have easily seen how forced that was. "Victoria…I never thought I'd have to say goodbye to a friend so early. I can't believe Josh had the nerve to do something like that."

"We're looking at some new angles now."

"No kidding?" Ryan exclaimed out of surprise. "What other suspects do you have?"

"You, for one."

"Me? Why on earth would I want to kill Victoria? I've known her since we were in elementary school."

"Because according to your best friend it seemed like you were getting cozy with Victoria after you and Katie broke up." Lily pointed out.

"My best friend? Mike?" Ryan shook his head as if he couldn't believe it. "He's not really my best friend anymore, we sort of split up after Victoria's death. Drifted apart in our own ways."

"But the point was if Katie had found out, she would have been crushed. Possibly see that as being unfaithful to her."

Ryan crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "True." He said carefully, a hint of confusion creeping into his voice. "But I would have never have dreamed of doing something like that to Katie—she was my one and only."

"Unfortunately even the best of us makes mistakes." Lily said sadly. "As you did with Victoria. Maybe she threatened to expose what had been going on between you two, tell Katie everything because she figured her best friend deserved to know."

"No." Ryan said coldly, his jaw tightening.

But Lily was growing in confidence as she pointed out all the evidence against Ryan. He was the one that had a motive to kill Victoria. He knew exactly where to find her, he would have known his way around campus and it would have been insanely easy to get her alone: all he would have had to do was call her up on her cell phone and ask if they could meet up. Lily had her own theory: maybe by April, Ryan had realized things between Victoria and him were never going to be as good as thing had been between him and Katie. Or perhaps April was the time Victoria couldn't hold back such a secret anymore.

Ryan blinked rapidly, as if he was actually trying to fight back tears. "That's a good story." He said at last. "But it's partly my own fault that you got the wrong version."

"How would that be the wrong version?"

"After the…incident at the mall, Victoria and I thought it'd be better that way…" Ryan whispered. "Then…nobody would suspect."

"Suspect what?"

"My plan to get Katie back."

_December 27, 2003_

_The wide range of jewellery in the store sparkled under the intense white lights that were spread out all around the store in hopes of luring in people that would have otherwise just passed by. Ryan and Victoria were hunched over a display case full of rings of all shapes, sizes and price ranges._

_Ryan let out a sigh. "My gosh Victoria, thanks for agreeing to come out here and help me shop for rings. This would have been overwhelming to me alone."_

_"I think it's overwhelming to the both of us right now." Victoria replied._

_"I've already been in two jewellery shops; none of the rings I've seen even look remotely good enough for Katie. Then again, I doubt I could ever afford a ring like that."_

_"Hey, would you relax?" Victoria gave Ryan a friendly slap on the arm. "I bet you could show up with one of those toy plastic rings you get out of a vending machine and she'd take you back within a heartbeat. You're a great guy."_

_"Thanks." Ryan fought hard not to blush. "I just…I just want everything to be perfect. Get her in a romantic spot, either alone or with you and Mike in the picture, and just pop the question so to speak, ask her if she would like to get back together, give me a second chance. I really want everything to be a big surprise so it's memorable and…perfect...just like we used to be. I really want us to get back together. I miss her so much."_

_"You will." Victoria assured him. "You will."_

_Ryan could tell he and Victoria had laid eyes on the same ring at the same time. Judging by the looks she gave him, they also knew it was perfect. A silver looking ring with a single stunning deep blue sapphire set off by two small diamonds on either side. It was simple yet elegant at the same time, something that Katie always seemed to achieve. Blue was her favourite colour, sapphire was her birthstone, everything was perfect._

_"It's perfect." Victoria breathed._

_In a moment of insanity, Ryan put his arm around Victoria and gave it a quick squeeze. Something about that moment felt right, something about his heart was touched, seeing that Victoria was doing all of this for the hope that her two friends would get back together. _

_His arm quickly dropped to his side again as a salesperson appeared in front of them, smiling at the young couple. "I see that's the one for you guys."_

_"Uh well…we were thinking about it." Ryan stammered._

_The lady gave him a warm smile. "I'd just like to let you two know that this is a stunning 18 K White Gold Sapphire and Diamond Ring. It's been a great hit with the ladies this year. Regular price is $350.00 but since it's after Christmas I can knock off $100, but only during the next two weeks."_

_"White Gold wow…" Ryan breathed before regaining his composure. "Thank you, I'll have to think about it."_

_As the lady strolled off to help some other customers, Ryan and Victoria hunched over the display case once again._

_"It's perfect." Victoria nearly laughed with glee. "This is the perfect ring for Katie. I know it."_

_"So do I…but the price is a nice roadblock." Ryan said regretfully._

_"What? You heard what the lady said. $100 off for the next two weeks." Victoria gave her friend a light punch in the arm. "It's practically fate."_

_"You know how much money I have Victoria, you're a student too." Fate or not, Ryan knew there was no way he was going to be able to afford a ring that cost $250, and that was before tax._

_"Yeah I know." Victoria sighed. Her face suddenly lit up again. "Tell you what, I'll split the cost with you. Fifty-fifty. Just pay me back within the next ten years."_

_"What?" Ryan couldn't believe his ears. "Are you crazy? I doubt either one of us would have that much money to spare. And I can't ask you to do something like this, it's not right."_

_"Look, just at least think about it." Victoria begged. "I want you two to be happy, and if that's what it takes, I'm willing to shell out the money. I can take bagged lunches from home everyday for the rest of the school year, don't sweat it. Just promise me you'll think about it."_

_Ryan tried his hardest to say no, but that ring kept calling to him. It really was too good of an opportunity to pass up. "Alright." He finally agreed. "I'll think about it."_

_"Good." Victoria smiled as the two of them made their way out of the shop. Ryan glanced up and the person he saw made his blood run cold._

_"Mike." Victoria said uneasily. "Fancy meeting you here."_

Present Day

"I guess you can guess what happened after that." Ryan said monotonously. "Seeing the side of the story you got."

"So Victoria was right, this was all one huge misunderstanding." Lily said that more to herself than to Ryan. "You were in that store for Katie."

He nodded. "I had meant to ask her to get back together on New Years Eve, but seeing Mike at the mall kind of put a dent in my plans, and my confidence. Victoria wanted to come clean and tell him, but I was still foolishly holding onto the hope that I could surprise Katie. It should have ended that day, but afterwards we came up with a plan: we would only pretend like we were going out to steer everyone onto the wrong track so they wouldn't have the slightest suspicion. After that, my next goal was to aim for Valentines Day. So much good that did me…I still haven't found the guts to get her that ring."

"So Katie knew about everything?"

Ryan shifted in his seat. "She didn't hear from us, no. Mike went and told her a few weeks after the whole New Years fiasco."

Lily made a note in her book, thanked Ryan and stood up to leave the room.

"If you must know, I still think Josh killed her."

Lily stopped in her tracks. "Why do you say that?"

"Because he was crazy."

"That may be your opinion." She turned around to leave again.

"No, I mean it, he really was crazy." Ryan stood up quickly, sending his chair crashing into the windowsill.

Lily turned back around. "And how would you know that?"

"Because…I saw Victoria once, outside the mental wellness centre of the school. She was waiting, and Josh came out a minute later. You only go there if you have some psycho mental problem."

"So you think Josh could have had some mental problem and snapped?"

"Yes I do." Ryan replied firmly. "Because a day later, she was dead."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Sorry I haven't updated for awhile, I went on vacation and just came back. Hopefully this chapter is just as good. A huge thanks to all my reviewers for the last chapter, _Bluenose, The Magic Bringer, Cold Case Chick_ and _Max Fuchs_!

_The Magic Bringer:_ Any new guesses after this chapter? I hope the ending won't be too disappointing for you :P

Please keep the reviews coming! They're the things that keep me going! )


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

The sunlight streamed into the police station the next morning, brightening Lily's mood. She felt like they were one step closer to finding out the truth about Victoria's death.

"Seems like Ryan and Victoria's little fling was all an act." She told the rest of the team. "The only downside was being a good friend, Mike went and told Katie what he thought was the truth. So maybe that angered Katie enough to get even with her best friend, teach her a lesson for messing with her ex."

Jeffries snorted. "Got to love teenage drama."

Vera approached the group clutching a file in his hand. Guessing by the look on his face, everyone could tell he had dug up something juicy.

"Guess what dirt I dug up on our ole' boy Josh here." Vera said as he slammed the file down on the desk. "Ryan was right."

Scotty picked up the file. "Registered student, Philadelphia State…this is new. Hospital records show he was admitted in January 2003."

Lily was instantly intrigued. "What for?"

Scotty handed her the file, too surprised for words. Lily took the brown folder from him and read the report. Josh had been hospitalized in the beginning of January 2003 from a mental breakdown. Scanning the records, Lily could see he had spent five months in the hospital being treated for a list of ailments, most notably depression. The best kicker of all came with the note that Josh had tried to commit suicide early on in his treatment.

"Suicide," Lily finally said. "That doesn't sound like the picture perfect Josh that Allison painted."

"But that explains why he snapped at Victoria, out of the blue." Jeffries pointed out.

"So what would it take for Josh to turn it from suicide to homicide?" Scotty wondered.

"That's what we have to find out."

* * *

Josh looked up from his seat as Lily and Scotty entered the room. Amongst all the other buff tattooed convicted criminals trying to get every last second with their families and/or loved ones, Josh looked all the more like a little boy that didn't belong in that ruff, cruel part of the world. 

"Hello Josh." Lily said. "I'm Detective Lily Rush and this is Scotty Valens."

Josh's eyes flickered from Lily, to Scotty then back to Lily again. "Is he your boyfriend?"

"No." Scotty said quickly, surprised by the question. "We're just partners."

"Maybe you should think about getting together." Josh said. "You look good together."

"Let's just cut to the chase shall we?" Lily suggested, for some reason eager to get on a much less awkward and out of the blue topic. "We came across a piece of very interesting information." In one swift motion Lily opened the file and slid it in front of Josh. His eyes were blank as he scanned line after line of his hospital record, describing his diagnosis, his progress, and his eventual release five months later. Minutes after Lily was sure he had read everything that was in front of him Josh was still silent.

"A witness claims to have seen you exiting the Wellness Centre of the school."

"Who said that?"

"That's not important."

Silence.

"Do you want to know what I think?" Lily finally asked.

Silence.

"That Victoria was just trying to be a good friend, and you suffered a relapse, snapped." Lily continued. "And she was the only one you could take your anger out on."

Silence.

"What, afraid to admit I might be right?"

"I could have never hurt Victoria." Josh's voice had dropped to a deep husky tone.

"Why not?"

"Because she didn't do what everybody else did. She didn't do what you're trying to do—she didn't judge me."

_January 2004_

_It was the first day of school and Josh couldn't help but feel a little elevated in happiness as he sat beside Victoria with rays of sunshine dancing around them. Icicles hung off the side of the buildings and the air was bitter cold making their breaths visible, but somehow that made him feel more alive. Victoria fiddled with her scarf as she listened patiently to the story Josh had to tell. Over the winter holiday he had heard a DJ on a local radio station go through some of his philosophy, recounting how babies and toddlers often held onto their parent's hands for safety and security. When you grow up, you hold onto your boyfriend or girlfriend's hands as a signal of love. And when the DJ died, he hoped that somebody would be holding onto his hand, to complete the circle._

_"I never thought of it like that." Victoria said at last._

_"I'd like that." Josh said confidently. "Somebody I loved…holding my hand as I pass on. What about you?"_

_"Me?" Victoria pondered that thought for a second before a mischievous smile came across her face. "Nah, I'm much greedier than that. I'd want the person holding me in their arms."_

_"Why?"_

_"Why?" the girl became serious once again. "Because I'd feel much closer to them, feel like they cared about me."_

_Victoria did seem to have a point of her own. But Josh was now at a loss for words, and fighting hard to find something, anything to talk about._

_"Are you ok?"_

_"I'm fine." Josh said quickly._

_"You're not fine. You've been talking a lot lately."_

_"I always talk a lot."_

_"You're talking more than you usually do."_

_For a guy that could usually find anything to talk about, Josh kicked himself for falling silent. But he had to tell her. She deserved to know…didn't she?_

_"I've wanted to tell you this for awhile now…we've gotten so close, and I feel like you should know, before we get any closer. I feel like you should have a right to know. But I was always scared to risk the chance of losing you as a friend."_

_"Whatever it is, I'm sure it won't change how I see you." Victoria assured him._

_Finally with her assurance, Josh began the story he had repeated twice already. He had told a little white lie when he had told her, so long ago, he had taken eight months off from school to work. True, he had worked during that time, but for only three of the eight months. With a deep breathe and a pounding heart, Josh told her the real reason he had taken all those months off school: after he had completed his winter exams in his second year, he had a mental breakdown. At that point the whole world had seemed to be closing in on him: he wanted to do well on his exams, he wanted to be strong for his family, but he was tired from dealing with their alcoholic mother. He had wanted to take care of it all, and yet the guilt was piling up from the feeling that always nagged at him for months on end. The feeling he was slowly slipping and spinning out of control. It got to the point where he tried to take his own life, thinking it would make things easier on his family and friends. But his plan had been stopped; he had arrived at the hospital in the nick of time, only to begin a gruelling regiment of recovery that lasted for five months._

_Victoria had remained silent throughout the whole ordeal, her face showing no disgust, no hate, no shock or horror, just the concentrating look he saw so often in class. Even after his tale had ended, that look remained on her face as she let his words slowly sink in. But soon after that, a new look crossed over her face, her eyes struggling to find the right words to say._

_"How are you now?" she asked softly._

_Josh pondered that question for a moment. "I'm a lot better now, sometimes I still get depressed, and who doesn't? But at least I won't go down that road again; I know I have a great family and a great girlfriend."_

_"And I'm sure great friends." Victoria smiled._

_Josh finally understood the new look that had crossed her face. It was the one that said, you idiot, why did you think I would be scared?_

_He had been wrong about her all along. He had made the mistake of telling Andrea his story and now whenever they ran into teach other on campus she always looked the other way, pretended not to know him. Word of his "illness" had spread quickly among her friends. He could see it in their eyes whenever he passed by...he could hear their whispers, their laughs, their teasing. They were more concerned about making fun of the mental case rather than…rather than taking a chance of trying to discover whether or not he was like them. Normal. Human._

_"You know." Victoria finally said. "My dad suffered depression when he went through University."_

_Josh could barely believe what he had heard. "Serious?"_

_"Come on, let's go for coffee." Victoria offered. "My treat." She gave Josh a friendly pat on the shoulder before they got up and started walking again._

Present Day

Josh looked up at Lily as she sat back, half in shock. He had always given off the impression of being a good-natured polite boy and whether that was thought of as truly genuine or all an act lay in the eyes of the beholder. But as she looked at the face again her heart ached with the realization that his eyes were filled with the pain that she herself was familiar with. Mother…alcoholic…attempted suicide…

She tried her best to remain professional, but she was finding herself feeling more and more compassionate to the boy that was, like her, mature beyond his years. She knew firsthand how destructive an alcoholic parent could be, making individuals like herself and Joshua seem like miracles.

"I'm sure you would have found that out if you had dug a little deeper instead of stopping where you wanted to." Josh said quietly. "Yes, my mother was an alcoholic, a real bitch."

"I'm sorry." Lily finally said.

"My dad tried the best he could to protect us." Josh continued. "But he was always working, always trying to support his three kids and his wife's…habit. The more he tried to stop the beatings, the more she beat us, blamed us for him blaming her. But that was when she was drunk. When she was sober, she beat us because of the hangover she had. Since I was the oldest, I felt it was my responsibility to protect my siblings, take three times the beatings so they wouldn't have to. She ran off with some other guy when I was sixteen: we haven't heard from her since. All the better."

"I know how you feel." Lily managed to say. "My mother was an alcoholic too."

He smiled grimly. "Then I guess we have something in common."

"I guess we do." Lily echoed, gathering up her files and papers. Her mind searched for something, anything to say to the boy. Part of her wanted to believe his innocence and yet the other part screamed murderer.

"Like I said, she didn't judge me. She saw who I was now and how far I can come from my past. I will be forever grateful to her because of that."

"But yet you were there when she died." Lily reminded him.

"Yes I was. And I was glad to be with her until the last."

Lily walked out of the visiting room with Scotty close in tow. It was no until the metal gate had slammed shut did Lily realize his hand had been on her shoulder once again.

* * *

To Jeffries and Vera it was any other interrogation room, a place where they spent as much, if not more of their time then at home. But it was the first time Katie saw the small grey room, the plain metal table and matching chairs, and her reflection in the two way mirror. And it was certainly the first time she had two detectives breathing down her neck trying to pin the murder of her best friend on her. 

"Like I said before, Victoria was my best friend. Why on earth would I hurt her?"

"Because at this point in time, a lot of suspicious things point to you." Vera stated. She had gone out with Ryan, broken up with Ryan and received the news he was cozying up with Victoria not too long afterwards. But since she would have been in a pretty serious relationship with Ryan, she would have had plenty of opportunities to visit him on campus. Plenty of time to know her way around. And certainly she could have easily gotten Victoria alone with a simple phone call.

The perfect recipe for murder.

"Mike _did_ tell me." Katie finally admitted. "About how Ryan and Victoria were getting close."

"And?"

"At first I was angry. But I took a little time to think about it and I realized they didn't do anything wrong, we had already broken up. I told her exactly how I felt the next time I saw her."

_Feb 14, 2004_

_It was the same house the same surroundings, the same decoration, and almost the same people. Katie's house always seemed to be the one they had their big parties and gatherings at. Valentines Day. It was supposed to have been a celebration, now…she didn't even know why she had let Victoria persuade her to hold a party at her house. A few months ago she would have gladly said yes in a heartbeat. Back then it was her and Ryan, and Victoria and Mike as the single ones. Now…was Victoria that good at acting like nothing was out whack? _

_Victoria gave a smile as Katie handed her a soda and sat down beside her friend on the couch._

_"Come on." Victoria tried. "Smile a little. It's Valentines Day."_

_But Katie was in no mood to lighten up. Not after what Mike had told her days earlier. Not after all she had gone through emotionally. But she had to do the right thing._

_She forced herself to smile. "I know."_

_"Know what?"_

_"About you and Ryan."_

_Victoria's face instantly clouded over. "Did Mike tell you?"_

_"Who else?"_

_"Of course." Victoria nodded, almost to herself. "Listen Katie, I know this may not seem to mean anything right now, but I promise you everything will work out. You'll see." _

_She held back a snort and a smirk. "Yeah, sure." Ironically, it was not until after the silence had dragged on for several minutes that Katie had realized how cold her voice had been._

_"Listen." She said hesitantly. "I…I just want you to know that I'm not angry at you. I…I wish you guys the best, you look like such a cute couple."_

_Victoria stared at her best friend in disbelief._

_"It's true."_

_The peace offering finally seemed to have sunk in for Victoria as she returned her gaze to the ground and drew her knees closer to her chest. But Katie knew that position also stood for something else. A confession._

_"Yeah, we're uh seeing each other now…but I'm not sure if it will last."_

_Katie's heard sped up and she fought hard against the urge to grin and smile. She knew she shouldn't feel happy over the predicted break-up with her best friend and her ex, but for some reason she couldn't help but look forward to it. Was this feeling normal?_

_"Oh?" Katie prided herself for keeping her voice even and calm. "Why not? Is it because of the other guy?"_

_"He asked me out again." Victoria admitted. "And I said yes…but it's not that."_

_"Then what is it?"_

_Silence._

_"Is there someone else?"_

_More silence._

"_There IS someone else. A third guy." Katie exclaimed triumphantly._

_Guilt was appearing all over her best friend's face. "Don't tell anyone." She said quickly. "Nothing's ever going to come out of it."_

_"So you've got the hots for another guy?" Katie tried her best to be friendly, giving the girl a friendly nudge and a wink._

_Victoria smiled shyly. "I guess…I don't know."_

_"Do I know this guy?"_

_"Sort of."_

_"Let me guess, tall dark and handsome?" Another nudge and a wink._

_Victoria finally lightened up enough to let out a laugh and a smile. "More like tall, blonde and handsome."_

_"Tall blonde and handsome? It's Josh isn't it?"_

_Victoria remained silent. But Katie knew, from that type of silence, she had hit the mark._

"So…Victoria had the hots for Josh?" Vera could barely believe his ears.

Katie hesitated for a moment before nodding. "She never said anything about it, but whenever she talked about him there was gleam in her eye I had never seen before. He was blonde, he was cute, and he was taller than me and Victoria by a good few inches."

"What about this other guy?" Jeffries questioned. "How did he get into the picture?"

Katie shrugged. "They met at school; he asked her out awhile after winter break, they went out at the end of the month. She brought me along for moral support, double date sort of thing."

"I'm assuming the date went pretty well."

Katie smiled to herself. "She thought it was a disaster because she was so shy and nervous she barely talked. In fact, most of the conversation came from me and the guy's friend. But you should have seen the way he looked at her, he saw past her shyness, her quietness; saw past all the walls she had put up. He saw her potential and fell in love with her."

"Sounds like a great guy." Vera commented.

"He was." Katie agreed. "I don't know why she didn't fall for him first. Heck I would have fallen in love with him, he was the perfect gentleman. But he only had eyes for her."

"Do you have a name for Prince Charming?"

Katie's forehead wrinkled ever so slightly and she searched her memory. "Adam…something. Lifeguard at the pool on campus if I remember correctly. I think that's how they first met."

* * *

**Author's Note:** This chapter was a little long, but I hoped you still liked it. Thanks to _The Magic Bringer_ and _Max Fuchs_ for reviewing! Please keep the reviews coming! 

_The Magic Bringer:_ Thank you for your kind words. I can only hope my story has a good ending and won't make every groan.

_Max Fuchs:_ No problem! And (haha) isn't that how CC runs? Sometimes it just keeps flipping back and forth between possible suspects?


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"This case is starting to have more twists and turns than a soap opera, except there's no debate on who's the father." Vera sighed as he leaned backwards and closed his eyes.

Lily leaned back in her own chair, feeling the team's frustration and awe that so much could have happened over such a short amount of time. True, all the suspected individuals were either working or in post-secondary around the time of the murder but the exact same situation would have probably been labelled classical high school drama. Even Jeffries wasn't too sure if Mike was the doer anymore.

"Josh pretty much admitted to the murder, didn't he?" Vera asked.

"He only said he was there when she died." Scotty clarified. "Told us things we already knew and left them too vague, probably on purpose. We could argue over that statement for hours on end."

But one thing that still hadn't quite sunk in for the team was the fact that Adam had been the "mystery guy". Another twist in the soap opera. They had no idea when Adam first saw Victoria. It was probably when she had been hanging out with Josh at the pool, perhaps even the day that Josh had snapped at her and he had watched on in horror. And to have fallen in love with her…

"Poor kid." Jeffries said. "He was the one that found her dead too."

"Unless he pulled the trigger and forced Josh to watch." Scotty replied.

"But if Josh saw Adam do that, why not say that to the cops?" Jeffries retorted. "What could Adam possibly have over Josh to make him go to jail for murder?"

"And more importantly, what motive could Adam have?" Vera pointed out.

But it was Lily that saw the whole picture. If Mike and Katie had been mistaken about Ryan and Victoria's intentions, there held a good chance that Adam would have also had the same misunderstanding. The more Mike and Katie believed Ryan and Victoria had a thing, the more desperate Ryan and Victoria might have been in trying to keep up the act and keep the secret from getting out of the bag. Ryan was also a student at the University and that would have given them ample opportunities to get together and try and sort out what their next move was. Even if Ryan and Victoria never spent a great amount of time together on campus, Victoria always seemed to have Josh by her side. If Katie had easily seen how infatuated Victoria was with Josh, then the third party, Adam, would have easily seen that too. It was all so simple: Adam could have called up Victoria in a jealous rage, asked to meet her at his work and seek his revenge, knowing Josh would accompany her and somehow take the blame for her death.

Scotty sighed and looked at his watch as the team slowly broke up into their respective tasks. He had called Adam half an hour ago and asked if he could come down to the station and answer a few more questions they had. He had readily agreed, so where was he now? And how long did it take for him to travel from campus down to the station anyways? Maybe Scotty should have found that out.

Another matter was driving him just as crazy. He had put his hand on Lily's shoulder yet a _third_ time, and she hadn't called him up on any one of the incidences. But as the saying goes, third times the charm right? Lily should have said or done something but there she was, racing around the office in the hurried but confident way she always did. It was as if nothing out of the blue had happened.

By chance Lily raced past his desk. Scotty stood up held out an arm and his heart skipped a beat when he realized he had succeeded in grabbing her arm. She stopped out of surprise and took a step backwards so they were facing each other.

"I got a question." Scotty said, dropping his grip.

"Alright." He could see her forehead wrinkle. Why hadn't he just called out her name? Why had he grabbed he arm like that? But just the same, she leaned back and crossed her arms.

"What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

Scotty gave himself a mental slap for ending the question so vaguely. "I mean with us."

She wrinkled her brow. "You are making absolutely no sense."

Another mental slap.

He took a deep breath and frantically tried to calm his beating heart. Could he make things any more awkward? "I want to know why. Why you haven't bitten my arm off yet."

The wrinkle on her forehead only deepened.

"I've put a hand on your shoulder two or three times in the past." Scotty said quickly before she had a chance to answer or walk away.

"Three."

"Right." Scotty continued.

"There's no law that says co-workers can't touch each other's shoulders."

"Maybe not, but I've never done that before. Not like that Lil, everything's different this time. Not just what has happened in the past to get us to this point, but I can just feel something different between us." The look on Lily's face gave him the answer he was looking for. "I know you feel it too."

"Don't be ridiculous." Lily tried to protest, but he could see it was a battle against herself that she was losing. Losing by the second. He wanted to grab her shoulders, hold her, reassure her. But something held him back. All he could do was bite his lip and try not to stare at the ground like a pathetic school boy.

"Then tell me." He said, fighting desperately to keep his voice even and calm. "Look me in the eye and tell me you there's nothing going on between us."

Lily stared him straight in the eye. It unnerved him a bit, being on the receiving end of the cold hard glare she normally gave guilty suspects. She was still fighting the same battle, fighting hard to follow her head instead of her heart.

"This is not the time for this kind of conversation." She hissed.

"Then when is it?" Scotty wondered as he watched her retreating back.

* * *

Scotty took a deep breath before he turned the doorknob and entered the interrogation room half an hour later. If Lily could be cool and collected in an instant, he could sure flip the same switch for himself, if that sort of switch even existed for him. True, they had interviewed hundreds of witnesses and suspects together, but why had Stillman paired them up _now?_ Could no one feel the tension between them?

Think of what Victoria and her family deserve. Scotty reminded himself as he closed the doors and allowed the two seconds for his eyes to adjust to the different level of lighting. He strolled over to a corner behind Lily and leaned casually against it, crossing his arms while she confidently flipped open a file in front of the nervous boy. "I've been looking through the records Adam, all the reports, interviews that you gave to police. Not once did you mention the truth of how you knew Victoria, leading the world to believe you viewed her as just some poor girl that you almost witnessed get shot to death."

"So I knew her a little better than that." Adam mumbled. "I don't see how that would change the investigation. My only regret was the fact that I _didn't_ witness the shooting. Otherwise you guys would have had an eye witness report and we wouldn't even be here now."

But Lily knew it changed a lot. Her sources told her that even if Adam wasn't in love with Victoria, he was probably infatuated with her. Perhaps Victoria rejected him, and he went after her to seek revenge for falling in love with the other guy. It certainly looked suspicious having her shot and killed in the pool, right where he worked.

"She was one in a million though not many people saw that." Adam agreed. "I knew she was in love with the other guy. I just thought…we had made it past the first date; maybe we could make it forever. I didn't care how much baggage she had, I thought I could deal with it."

"But she held back?"

"She had been alone all her life, so she was used to dealing with things on her own."

_February 2004_

_Adam pushed open the door and held it open for Victoria to step through. "Welcome to my world." He did a low and graceful bow as the girl stepped past him._

_Victoria let out a tiny laugh as her shoes walked across the marble, the soft pattering echoing through the vast empty space. He knew she had probably seen the viewing balcony of the swimming pool before, but never when the pool was closed for cleaning and nobody else but the workers were around. "Nice." she said with a hint of sarcasm. "So tell me, how many girls have you taken up here?"_

_He waited until she had turned around and started walking to the railing before he dared to utter his answer. "Counting you…one."_

_If she did hear his answer she didn't show it. Victoria strolled over to a spot at the railing right next to one of the two brick columns. A moment later he joined her._

_"So swimming is part of your life huh?"_

_"Yes. A part." Adam answered. They gazed down into the pool in silence, watching the light reflect off of the nearly calm water._

_"I know it sounds corny. "Adam finally said. "But I love how the light shimmers off of the water."_

_He could see Victoria try to hide a shy smile. "No…I think it's beautiful too."_

_Adam fought hard to hold onto his self-confidence. "You know what I heard?"_

_"What?"_

_"That some people don't like the way the water reflects light indoors. That they think water indoors should be absolutely still, like a mirror. Otherwise, they chalk that up as imperfections."_

_"What do you think?"_

_Adam took a moment to think about that. "Well I don't see those as imperfections. I think those are the things that give the water character. Makes the whole package more beautiful."_

_In a moment of insanity Adam reached over and grabbed Victoria's hand, entwining her fingers in her own. He could feel her muscles tense, like she was thinking of pulling her hand out of his grasp. But a second later that passed and Adam felt his heart fill with hope._

_"Everyone has imperfections." Adam continued. "You…me, everyone. But when I look at you, I don't see that. Just like the water, they give you character, make you all the more beautiful."_

_"How can you know already?" she whispered. "How can you know?"_

_He never replied._

_He gently pulled on her arm so she was facing him. He took a step forward as she took a step back, so her back was now pressed against the column. Reason and logic were slipping away from him now, replaced only by instinct. He clasped her face with both hands and lifted it up so she was staring straight into his eyes. Without thinking he closed his own and leaned forward. A second later he felt his lips press gently against hers. He was surprised: this time there was no voice in the back of his head warning him about the possible slap to come or the shove away or simply if she thought he was a good kisser or not. For once in his life, he concentrated on the moment._

_The kiss lasted a second and a lifetime. When they drew apart Adam could see the lingering look of surprise but happiness in her eyes._

_"I can't believe it." Victoria breathed. "My very first."_

_"You're serious?" Adam asked. How could such a girl, such a diamond in the rough, have not experience her first kiss until now? And more importantly, how had he ended up being the lucky one? "Well that calls for another." He leaned forward and their lips met again. Instinctively he moved his hands from her face and wrapped his arms around her waist. He could feel her arms wrap gently around his neck. His mind was spinning but not just from the reality of being allowed a second kiss. Had he been her very first? He could hardly believe it._

_A second later he could feel her push him away. For a second his heart sank, but soon leapt back up again as he heard a bright and happy tone. Her cell phone was ringing. She had pushed him away because her phone was ringing._

_"I'm sorry…I'm sorry." Victoria mumbled as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. He could feel her mentally curse as her eyes scanned over the caller i.d. She shut her phone again and the ringing ceased._

_"Now, where were we?" Adam leaned forward again, but the bright and happy tone filled his ears once again._

_"Arg." Victoria said as she dug out her phone once again. She was in the process of turning her phone off when Adam gently grabbed her arm._

_"Answer the phone." He advised her._

_She looked at him in surprise. He should have been mad that she had her cell phone on in the middle of their date, but here he was, gently telling her that she should answer the phone. He had to nod at her one more time before she found the courage to move her finger and answer the call._

_"Hello." Victoria sighed as Adam took a step back and allowed her to wander away from the column. The voice on the other end of the phone came through so loud Adam wondered how it was possible she still kept the phone right next to her ear. "No he's not here." With every passing second he could see that she was getting increasingly annoyed. She tapped her foot and crossed her arms as best she could. "Look, just because he's not with you right now doesn't mean he spends every other free minute with me. We both have separate lives." A few more minutes and Victoria had enough, telling the caller that she was hanging up on them._

_Adam tried to smile as the girl wandered back to him. "Ready to get to where we were?" Victoria smiled, but her eyes told him otherwise._

Present Day

"Stupid phone call spoiled it." Adam sighed. Unconsciously he touched his lip as if he could still feel the kiss.

Somehow Lily knew everything before Adam opened his mouth. After the phone call it was like Victoria had flipped a switch and retreated even deeper into her quiet and reserved manner. After that day she had told Adam she needed some space to sort out the feelings she had. That was when he knew her heart was in another place whether or not she wanted it to be.

"It was my own stupidity too." Adam confessed. "I didn't hear anything from her for a few weeks…so I went and started seeing someone new. She was so hurt when she found out but she blamed everything on herself, saying she should have done something sooner."

"Did you ever find out who the other guy was?" Lily asked.

"Not his name, no." Adam said. "But whoever he was I figured that was his girlfriend that called that day, probably figured out Victoria had the hots for her guy."

"How were you sure of that?"

Adam swallowed and looked at Lily straight in the eye. "Because I could hear her voice before Victoria walked away with the phone. Sounded something like 'stay away from him or else I'll kill you.'"

* * *

**Author's Note:** Thanks to my reviewers for last chapter, _jambled_ and _Max Fuchs_! I'm so glad you guys like the case!

Please keep the reviews coming! Thanks!


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"Well Adam's suspicions were right." Jeffries said to Lily as he threw down a thin file in front of her. "And it's scary how well it fits in everything."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked as she opened the file.

"I managed to get a hold of phone records for Victoria's cell phone. "From January to March Victoria received persistent phone calls, some spaced only minutes apart. They were all from the same number."

"The best friend." Lily began to lean back in her chair.

"Allison Channing."

Lily did not expect that. "Josh's girlfriend?"

Jeffries nodded.

"Ah, the other jealous girlfriend rears her ugly head." Lily could feel a joyous tone creep into her voice as she flipped through the rest of the file. Though it had initially come as a complete surprise to find Allison was involved in the mix, with each passing second Lily could see the puzzle piece fit in better and better. So Allison Channing was the new suspect. Arguably she could have had a very good reason to kill hurt Victoria, especially if Victoria had been messing around with Josh. Even a suspicion on Allison's part would have been good enough. Logically, she would have known her way around campus: Josh didn't seem like the type to deny his girlfriend the grand tour.

"You think Victoria was like that?" Jeffries wondered. "From the picture everyone's been painting, she wouldn't seem like the type to even think of messing around like that."

Lily was about to swing her feet up onto the desk but thought of a better idea. "Everyone's got their secrets." She picked up the phone and started to dial.

* * *

Perhaps it was wrong but Vera found himself enjoying the fact that Allison was trying not to squirm and sweat under the single bright lamp. Sure it was no guarantee that she would tell the complete truth this time around, but at least she would know the team would never rest until they go the truth from her. 

"It seems like you left out a few key things." Jeffries said.

"Like…?"

"Like the fact that you knew Victoria pretty well. You two seemed tight."

"Tight? I didn't know her."

"Really? Ain't that funny." Jeffries placed the phone records in front of Allison. "Cause we figured if you called someone ten times a day, everyday, you gotta be tight."

"Unless you killed Victoria so she wouldn't be able to steal Josh away." Vera chimed in cheerfully. "The only thing you didn't count on was Josh sticking around and getting thrown into the slammer for her murder."

The look on Allison's face told the detectives everything: she was slowly cracking under all that stress and all that evidence that linked her to Victoria's death. Yet she maintained that Josh was innocent.

"Look." Allison said wearily. "The only reason I didn't tell you everything was because I was afraid you wouldn't help because of…of what I did."

"And what did you do?"

"Whenever I wasn't with Josh, I kept hounding her with those phone calls. In my mind if Josh wasn't with me, then he was with her. I kept thinking she was trying to seduce him, trying to come between us and steal his heart for herself."

"Finally…" Allison continued. "She got so fed up she agreed to meet me."

_March 2004_

_Allison sat on one of the hard wooden benches outside of the Student Union Building, aimlessly watching the students wandering in and out. Sometimes the wind caused her vision to be blurred with strands of her dark hair, but she made no effort to brush them away. It was a Saturday so the whole place was a lot quieter than a regular weekday: only the ridiculously hardworking lingered on campus. That was good; Allison didn't know what sort of a scene might start in the next little while. She looked at all the happy couples walking by, hand in hand, or arm in arm. Other times the guy would have one arm around his girl while he carried her book bag with his other. Had she and Josh been like that once? Perhaps, but now Victoria was here trying to ruin everything. There were so many guys in Philly, single guys at that, why did she have to go after one that was already taken?_

_Perhaps some people were just born with twisted morals and consciences. Allison decided. And Victoria definitely fit into that category._

_She saw her walking from a distance, coming in the direction of the bus stop. Allison had briefly set eyes on Victoria the few times she had come over to Josh's to work on their school projects but she was certain that figure was her. She felt nothing but anger and disgust as she watched the figure grow in size. If she was some kind of bombshell Allison could understand why Josh would fall for her, but what on earth did Victoria have over Allison? She certainly didn't seem to be a genius or have a high E.Q. For crying out loud she was wearing baggy blue jeans and a light blue shirt under her jacket and her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail making her face appear even rounder. Victoria wasn't pretty, she had no fashion sense and nothing seemingly unique in her personality. Why would Josh even dream of falling for such a plain Jane?_

_No time to wonder about that. Allison decided as she stood up. It was time to let Victoria know Josh was taken._

_It took Victoria a little longer to recognize Allison, but it would have been pretty hard to miss the gaze of someone shooting daggers with their eyes. She approached with a polite smile, but her eyes showed plenty of wariness. She didn't trust Allison, and so much the better: Allison definitely did not trust Victoria._

_"Victoria."_

_"Allison."_

_The two girls faced each other for a few minutes, one wondering what was there to talk about while the other fumed with silent anger._

_"Stay away from him." Allison finally said. "Stay away from Josh. He's mine."_

_"There's nothing going on between me and him." Victoria replied._

_"You're lying!" For some foolish reason Allison could feel hot tears start to well up in her eyes. Maybe they were tears of frustration, she didn't know. "I know you like him, I know it! And I know he likes you, he talks about you all the time!"_

_"Whenever he's with me, he talks about you. Makes it very clear to me and to everyone else that you are his girlfriend."_

_No, Allison would not fall for whatever game Victoria was playing._

_"He loves you Allison. Whenever he talks about you, he gets that look in his eye."_

_"Stop that."_

_"Stop what? Telling the truth?"_

_All those months of anger were finally coming out. She had spent so long fuming; she would not have things going astray now. Not after all this time._

_"Just admit it." She could feel her voice quiver, but there was nothing she could do about that._

_"Admit what?"_

_"That you like Josh!" Allison ended the sentence in a half scream, causing the lone passer-by to give them a curious glance. "Admit it!"_

_"Allison, people are starting to stare…"_

_"Admit it!" Now it was a full on scream. "Don't you dare lie! Admit it! You like Josh! You love him! Admit it!"_

_The same passer-by turned around and gave them another curious glance but luckily he decided to keep walking to his destination. Victoria let out a sigh and seemed to sag under her own body weight. Allison knew she had done it. She had broken Victoria._

_"I like his character." Victoria said quietly. "I love how he is so friendly to anyone and everyone. I love his easy-going nature, his outlook on life. I can only hope there is a guy out there like Josh whom I could love and vice versa. I love who he is, but I don't love him."_

_"That's the same thing!" Allison screamed again. How on earth did Victoria manage to get into University? She had absolutely no common sense! "If you love his character, then you love him!"_

_"Allison look…"_

_"I want you to fix this problem."_

_"Fix what problem?" Victoria said in the same defeated tone. _

_Allison snapped. She didn't know what made her reach this breaking point. Maybe it was all those months of frustration, all those months of pretending everything was fine when it wasn't, maybe it was Victoria, still pretending that she was innocent. All Allison knew was that she had gone and kicked Victoria right in the shin. Her foot stung from the impact but she knew it had hurt Victoria even more. She gave a well-aimed kick to her stomach._

_Victoria collapsed heavily onto the ground gasping for breath over the impact. So Allison had caught her off guard. So much the better._

_"Look Victoria." She said hotly. "I just want you to fix it. Or there will be more where that came from."_

_She still didn't reply. Victoria stared up at Allison through narrowed eyes, a look that spelled half anger and half hatred. Had Allison's punch destroyed her remaining brain cells as well?_

_"I don't care how, just fix it. Or else." Allison hissed. She turned on her heels and walked quickly away before Victoria could say or do anything._

Present Day

"It's only now that I realize how unfair I had been." Allison continued. "Josh had plenty of other friends that were girls, and for some reason I had singled her out. But after that day…all I felt was pride. I was proud of myself for what I had done. I thought I had won the war. But I had taken it all wrong. He always trusted me, I should have trusted him."

It sure didn't seem to sound all that logical at first, but the more Jeffries thought about what Victoria had said the more he began to feel like he understood. At the very least, he felt it was somehow possible to love a person's character but not the person itself. He shook his head mentally and concentrated on jotting down the remainder of his notes. It had been a long time since he had been a lovesick teenager. Somehow that knowledge made him feel even older. Josh definitely didn't seem the type to go out with a girl and not keep up friendships with other girls, so why would Allison have been so worked up about Victoria alone? Jeffries focused on the face of the girl sitting across from him and mentally compared it to the pictures of Victoria's face that he had already seen a hundred times. At first there was nothing but slowly the wheels in his mind started to click. They both had jet black hair, the same shade of brown in their eyes, and the same skin tone and complexions. Maybe Allison had singled out Victoria because she saw a bit of herself in the young girl. A shallow notion perhaps, but one Jeffries was finding more and more likely by the second.

"So I'm guessing Victoria fixed the problem." Vera piped up.

Allison nodded slowly. "She met up with Josh a few weeks later and called off the friendship. I'd never thought she'd do something like that, but she did. She had finally gotten the respect she deserved all along. And a few weeks later…she was dead."

"How did Josh take the friendship ending?"

"He was mad. I had never seen him so furious. He almost put a hole through his wall. I thought he was going to strangle me right then and there."

"Was he angry at Victoria as well?" Jeffries asked.

Allison remained silent.

"Allison?"

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean…to say…"

"Look Allison," Jeffries said wearily. "If there's something you know about Josh and what happened, I'd suggest you'd let it out."

"But it will make him look guilty, and I know he's not guilty!"

"We'll be the judge of that."

Allison sighed. "He was just as mad, if not madder. I'm surprised he didn't kill her the day she broke up with him. But a few weeks later…for some reason…he was happy again."

"And why would that make him look guilty?"

Allison hung her head. "Because a couple days later, she was dead."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Wow, a huge million thank you's to all my wonderful reviewers for last chapter! Thank you to _LongislandItalian2, jambled, pushpitake,_ _Marion, _and _Max Fuchs!_

**Longislanditalian2:** Ah another familiar name I recognize! Thank you for your review!

**Jambled:** Thanks for putting me on author alert. Now you have me wondering who Lily's first kiss was too haha.

**Pushpitake:** I hope this chapter answered your question. As to the ending, even I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen. I've got a few ideas, but I can't seem to choose between them. But thank you for your guesses!

**Max Fuchs:** More curve balls than a pitcher eh? Thanks. ) I try to do that as much as I can without confusing everyone. Hopefully it's working.

**Marion:** Wow, thank you for your wonderful review, it was definitely quite the surprise! Yes, understandable is a word in English (as far as I know at least). I can only hope my future chapters will be just as enjoyable for you to read. (More Lily/Scotty tension planned). Merci beaucoup!

As always, please keep the reviews coming!


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Scotty heard the bang of the metal gate close behind him as he made his way to the main visitor's room. It was starting to get to the point of being tiresome: all the new evidence they were collecting lead them back to Joshua Phillips. How perfect he was, how imperfect he was, how crazy he was, how sane he was. How easily he could snap, how easily he could keep everything inside. Josh had been convicted of Victoria's murder almost two years ago so logically an innocent man would have spoken up in his defence. Right?

So if Josh was really innocent…why hadn't he talked?

But he did talk. Scotty reminded himself. He had pointed them to the direction of Stephen Larsen, which in turn had pointed in the direction of Mike Smith, which eventually had led them back…here. Back to Josh once again.

So did that make him guilty?

That thought could have plagued his mind for a few more seconds, but a new commotion was reaching his ears. It was the sound of yelling, most likely from the visitation room Scotty was bound for. But that was not what caught his attention. The yelling sounded familiar. Very familiar.

A few quickened paces and Scotty was around the corner. The sight that greeted him was definitely one of surprise. He almost felt like he had wandered into the middle of World War Three. Some of the inmates and their visitors were luckily far enough away from the commotion they were still able to sit and survey the scene. Most of the people close-by had abandoned their seats to avoid being hurt in the crossfire.

It was Adam vs. Josh. Or more accurately, it was Adam breathing fire and brimstone as he was being held back by two prison guards while a third stood in front of a nervous Josh. Scotty had a feeling most of the nearby tables and chairs would have been flipped over, had they not been bolted down to the concrete floor.

"You killed her, admit it!" Adam screamed. "You killed her!"

Against his better judgement Scotty rushed into the room and threw himself in front of Adam.

"Philly P.D." Scotty told the guards, thankful they were still using their strength to hold back Adam. Scotty was sure he could not have held back that boy on his own. He softened his voice to deal with the nearly hysterical individual. "Hey there Adam, remember me? I'm Det. Scotty Valens. What's going on?"

The sound of Scotty's voice either calmed him down or caused him to snap, Scotty couldn't be sure. All he knew was the fact that in a split second Adam had gone from being a bloodthirsty man to one that was lying on the ground sobbing like a baby. Half embarrassed and half sympathetic, Scotty had grabbed Adam as he fell. This prompted the guards to loosen their grip, no longer perceiving Adam as a threat to the rest of the inmates and visitors. There Adam remained for the next few minutes, still sobbing.

"He killed her, I know he did." Adam sobbed. "I loved her so much…so much…I just want her back…"

At a loss, there was nothing Scotty could think of doing other than patting Adam on the shoulder and mumbling a continuous repetition of "I know."

"She loved you, you know."

Scotty had almost forgotten about the boy who still stood half cowering behind the third prison guard. And judging by the look on Adam's face, he had forgotten too. "What!"

Josh continued to look at Adam with a look on his face; the one that Scotty felt was a mixture of sympathy and heartache. "Victoria always loved you. Up until the end she did, I could see it in her eyes."

"You're lying!" In a split second Adam was on his feet and trying to lunge at the boy once again. This time however everyone else was caught off their guard and unable to react with the same lightening speed. One guard managed to grab Adam's left arm in mid-flight, which only caused Adam's right fist to swing forward too soon. The punch that had been originally intended for Josh missed him by miles and ended up nailing a much closer target, one whom had sprang up to try and stop Adam. Scotty felt the sickening pain of bone on bone and a couple of stars in his vision as he realized he had just been on the receiving end of Adam's punch. A few people gasped as he staggered backwards in shock and dumbly watched the two guards struggle to hold Adam back yet again.

The next thing Scotty knew was the guards had wrestled Adam out of the visitor's room and sat him down on a hard bench metal bench just outside the hall. Perhaps Scotty should have felt mad or angry or some other variation…but all he felt was sympathy for the young boy. Adam and Victoria had gone out for two dates and two dates only…could Adam have fallen for Victoria in such a short amount of time? Perhaps their relationship was one that was meant to last for an eternity.

If only she hadn't died.

Scotty sat down beside Adam on the hard bench, noting that two of the three guards were still around the corner watching very carefully over them. Scotty never greeted Adam and Adam never made a gesture to acknowledge Scotty's presence so the two men sat on the hard bench and stared aimlessly at the opposite wall for several minutes. When Scotty couldn't take it anymore, he started.

"So what was your purpose in coming here?"

Only silence greeted Scotty which made him even more annoyed.

"I don't suppose Josh was actually your best friend or something?"

Scotty nearly sighed with relief to hear he had pushed the right button. "Best friend?" Adam half snorted. "Never. I would never befriend a murderer."

"So you just thought that by coming here and pummelling Josh he would confess to something?"

"Victoria's gone and she'll never come back." Adam cried. "What am I supposed to do? Just sit around and hope the justice system comes to its senses? That Josh guy should be put on death row!"

Scotty had heard enough and having a stinging cheekbone certainly did not help matters. He abandoned his failing mission with Adam and went to work on his original target: Joshua.

Scotty found him back in his cell and the guard let him inside with a simple nod to the head. There was the other boy sitting huddled up on the thin bed with his back wedged in the corner staring at…something. He glanced up when Scotty entered the cell and the gate banged shut behind him but soon his eyes drifted back to that same invisible spot.

Scotty took a spot at the end of the bed. When he had first arrived there were so many questions he wanted to ask Josh, he was even beginning to form a rough outline of how the interrogation would go. But now all of that was being pushed to the backburner. There was one thing that nagged at his mind the most, and though he knew if he asked he would be unprofessional. But that was before he got punched in the face.

"So why did you tell Adam that?"

"Tell him what?"

Scotty mentally massaged his temples. He could feel a big headache coming on. "Tell Adam that Victoria still loved him, to the very end."

"Because she did."

"You didn't consider the possibility that he would react in the way he did?"

"I thought he'd like to know…instead of spending the rest of his life wondering."

"So you were doing him a favour?"

Josh wearily lifted his head up so he could look into Scotty's eyes. "One of the greatest gifts you can get from your life is to love someone and know they love you in return. I knew Adam loved Victoria…and I knew she loved him in return. She just never got the chance to tell him."

"And you knew they loved each other after they went on two dates?" Scotty could feel the sarcasm creeping into his voice.

Josh shrugged. "Some people can fall in love with each other after ten minutes, for some it takes ten years. If it was so predictable nobody would be fascinated with it. It's just the way it goes."

"Right…" He reached into his coat pocket for his pad and pen.

"You love someone as well."

"Why do you say that?" Scotty replied quickly, perhaps a little too quickly. He didn't like showing how defensive he could get on some subjects, which always gave the suspects a way in, a glimpse into his weakness. The smart and cunning ones would always try to use that to their advantage. Well…nothing like a punch in the face to show off one's weakness either.

"I can see it in your eyes."

Scotty had to admit that did make sense. What was that saying? The eyes were the windows into the soul? His heart had been aching so much for what seemed so long, was there a time when his heart was _not_ aching? There had been no chance to talk to Lily for the past few days though it wasn't as if she had been standing there with open arms anyhow. But what seemed even more amazing was the fact that all this philosophical stuff was coming from a former University student that was at least ten years his junior. He found himself getting defensive once again.

"My eyes? They're brown."

"They have heartache. When you love someone…your heart aches even more. Their problems become your problems, your worries. On top of all of that, you worry _about_ them."

Scotty wanted to come up with some witty remark or some clever rebuttal. But he felt the possible words slowly dissolve in his mind as he began to see Josh's words make sense. The feelings had been coming on so gradually he wouldn't have known unless someone pointed them out. But now Scotty realized everything Josh had said was true. Every time Lily found herself frustrated at a dead-end lead, every call that went cold, every tough interview with unyielding suspects Scotty found himself wishing he could wipe away all her sorrows. Maybe his heart ached even more with the painful knowledge that Lily wouldn't let anyone help her, wouldn't let anyone in. That just gave Scotty more grief: he hated seeing Lily like that, hated seeing her get hurt. Why just the other day she was so absorbed in her work that she had given herself a paper cut…

Scotty shook his head as lightly as possible so it wouldn't be so obvious to Josh. Why was he obsessing over a paper cut? He knew people seldom bled to death from a paper cut.

And yet he had worried.

More now than ever he hated how Josh seemed to get under his skin, seemed so friendly and easy to talk to. By the looks of it, Victoria certainly seemed to feel comfortably spilling her heart out to Josh. But why did Scotty have to give in to the same temptations?

"Yes I feel as if I love her." Scotty finally confessed. "But she won't let me love her."

"Why not?" Josh's voice had turned from the unemotional flat tone to a one of quiet, hushed anticipation.

It was Scotty's turn to fall silent.

"If you think she's worth holding onto." Josh said. "You should hold onto her."

"But what if it falls apart in the end?"

There was a small smile on the boy's face. "It won't."

You idiot. Scotty scolded himself. Steer the conversation back to Victoria, you're getting too personal.

"So was that your philosophy on Victoria?"

Josh's face stoned over. "What?"

"We talked to Allison the other day. She said Victoria came to you to call the friendship off and you spun down into what seemed like another depression. But a few days before Victoria was killed she said you started acting like your normal self again."

"So?"

"Maybe you were depressed, felt like she abandoned you, but you became happy again when you thought of your plan."

"A plan?"

"If you couldn't keep Victoria by your side, nobody else could have her."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it now?" Scotty pressed on. "That would have been the perfect plan, kill Victoria so she couldn't go anywhere else, couldn't confide in anyone else. In that sick demented way, she would always be yours."

"Mine? Victoria was her own person. And I was her friend."

"Oh stop that." Scotty said. "We got a lead that says Victoria was lusting over you. Maybe you weren't prepared to choose between your girlfriend and her, or maybe you didn't want to. So that's why you killed her."

"What? That's the first time I've heard of such a thing!"

"So you've never heard of that? Victoria lusting after you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Heard through the grapevine that she was lusting after a 'tall, blonde and handsome' guy. Sound familiar?"

Josh leaned back against the wall once again and for a second Scotty thought he saw a flicker of a good-hearted smirk, if an expression was even possible. "The tall blonde and handsome guy? It wasn't me, it was Mike."

Scotty sat back, exhausted at such a revelation. He wanted to come up with some clever remark to undermine Josh's latest lie, but was it just that? A lie? Or was he telling the truth? It all seemed logical…Mike was pretty tall, he was blonde, and Scotty was no girl but he had to admit Mike wasn't an ugly guy either. If all of that was true…everybody had been wrong in assuming that Victoria had a thing for Josh. But it was possible for Victoria to like two guys at once…wasn't it?

"So all that time you spent together, nothing ever grew from that friendship?"

Josh rested his chin on his knees and stared at the opposite side of his bed. "No. It wasn't like the movies. It was a line that the two us would have never crossed."

"How…noble."

"It's the truth." Josh said wearily. "I'd be lying if the thought of…of what you said never crossed my mind. Maybe if we were both single when we met…we could have. But not in this lifetime. I love Allison too much for that. And for once in her life, Victoria was determined to have her way…"

_April 2004_

_Josh knew there was something wrong the minute he had heard her say hello over the phone. There was just something weighing down her voice as she told him she needed to see him as soon as possible. It was the last day of class and Josh got off an hour later than her. That was fine she had told him. She would wait, but she didn't want him worrying through his last class._

_Josh tried his hardest but towards the end he couldn't help wondering just what plagued Victoria so much she just HAD to see him. When the final bell rang he grabbed his bag and nearly sprinted out of the building. There was just one thing on his mind now._

_Victoria._

_He hoped she was alright._

_He found her exactly where she said she would be, under the big willow tree in the oak garden. It had been her favourite hangout spot to relax and de-stress. Josh jogged and sat himself down beside her, leaning against the trunk for support and trying not to concentrate on the fact that he was sitting on still damp ground._

_"Hey." He said cheerfully. "What's up? What was so bad you wanted to see me right away? Was your last class so horrible? Don't worry about it; it's nothing a good coffee can't fix."_

_He knew he was babbling on but he didn't care. That was all he knew how to do in a pathetic attempt to try and cheer her up. How did she always seem to know the right things to say to get him to feel better? Now the one time the roles might be reversed, he was like a deer in the headlights._

_Victoria just stared at him for the longest time with red eyes before she diverted her attention back to the damp soil. "I talked to Allison the other day."_

_"Really?" Josh felt surprised to hear his voice was much lighter than his heart felt. "That's funny, she never mentioned it to me."_

_Victoria's only response was too roll up one leg of her jeans to reveal the huge black and blue spot that angrily covered her shin. And all Josh could do in response was stare dumbly at that spot._

_"She did that?" he whispered at last._

_A single nod._

_"Are…are you sure?"_

_"I didn't fall if that's what you mean." Victoria's voice quivered with anger._

_"I don't understand how she could do such a thing." Josh felt his whole body go numb with shock. He had always told himself he would defend Victoria. She was one of his closest friends and if anybody insulted her he would have gone after the insulter and beat them up without a second thought. He would have done it all because he knew as great as Victoria was she would have rarely stood up for herself. But things were so different now…how was he supposed to beat up the insulter when the insulter was his own girlfriend?_

_"I do." Victoria said quietly. "She thinks there is something going on between us."_

_"That's ridiculous." Josh replied. "There's nothing going on. Right?"_

_"Right." Victoria agreed._

_Somehow that "right" didn't sit too well with Josh. It was too delayed, too held back. It sounded more like Victoria trying to convince herself that there was nothing going on rather than the conformation Josh was looking for. Did she really like him? If she did, she was never going to tell him._

_"Look." Josh searched for the right words he could say, but what could he say to his girlfriend beating up his friends? "I'll, I'll talk to Allison. This is just ridiculous what she's gone and done. She had no right; I have other friends that are girls, why should she pick on you and you alone?"_

_"I want us to stop being friends."_

_"What?" Josh definitely did not expect that blunt answer. He almost thought of asking Victoria who she was and what she had done with the real Victoria but he fought against that. "Why?"_

_"It's better this way."_

_"WHAT way?" Josh demanded. "Better if we stop seeing each other?"_

_"When I saw you guys at your house that one time, you guys had something beautiful." Victoria said. "I don't want to be the one to destroy that."_

_"No." Josh said firmly. "I'm not letting this go. I'll talk to Allison, I'll make her understand. She can't tell me who I can and cannot be friends with."_

_Josh babbled on a bit longer about something, anything to make Victoria changer her mind but the whole time she just sat there swinging her head gently from side to side. Victoria had never been an arguer, she had said that several times herself but everything was different this time. Josh could have not have felt any more helpless: he knew he was going to lose the argument._

_"I'm quite determined to have my way." Victoria smiled grimly. "I've spent my whole life reacting to what other people have done. I got into University because my mom kept telling me of the opportunities she missed from supporting her younger brothers; I entered into Science because my dad told me he missed that opportunity. For once just let me go through a decision that I have made."_

_"But you're just reacting to what Allison has done. What she told you to do."_

_But in the end Josh knew it was pointless. He hadn't known Victoria for very long but he knew her well enough to know there was no way she was going to back down. Sometimes she was as stubborn as an ox, and this was definitely one of those times. So he did the only thing he knew how. He dug into his bag and pulled out the camera he always carried with him. As silly as it was, he wanted to take one last picture with Victoria, and for that moment he wanted to pretend that everything was fine between them just like it used to be._

_Josh prayed she would say yes to his request, but how could she have said no? He was acknowledging her goodbye; he just wanted to have something to remember her by, to remember how she looked._

_As if he could ever forget._

_Within a minute they had flagged down a passed by and Josh shoved the camera into his bewildered arms._

_"Alright." The guy said. "Ready, set, cheese!"_

_"Cheese!"_

_"Hey, that's a cool wristband you got there." The guy said to Victoria as he handed Josh back his camera._

_"This?" Victoria smiled and absentmindedly fingered her orange rubber band._

_"Yeah. I've seen yellow and blue and white. Don't think I ever saw orange."_

_"Yeah, I got it from the library ages ago."_

_Uncomfortable with being left out of the conversation, Josh stepped up and stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Josh by the way, and this is my uh, friend, Victoria."_

_The guy took Josh's hand and gave it a warm shake. "Nice to meet you both. Just call me Thomas. Thomas Granger."_

Present Day

"Thomas Granger?" Scotty replied, too shocked to say anything else.

"Yes."

"You met and talked to Thomas Granger? Thomas _Jefferson _Granger?"

Once again Josh had no answer. And for once in what felt like a long time, Scotty was too shocked to notice.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I apologize for not updating sooner…ran into a bit of writer's block. Hopefully that won't be anything permanent. And also hope this chapter wasn't too long. Thank you to my reviewers for last chapter, _Max Fuchs_, _pushpitake_ and _intheclosetromantic_! 

**Max Fuchs:** Thank you for being a faithful reviewer for so long…hopefully the ending will not disappoint.

**Pushpitake:** Sorry if I confused you (and anyone else) last chapter. I guess I was starting to infuse it with a bit too much Criminal Minds….sorry!

**Intheclosetromantic**: Thank you for reading my story. I really wanted to create a story with a lot of L/S tension…nice and slow. I've read a few stories where L/S seemed to happen overnight and hopefully this makes me a bit different )


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

It had been a very busy morning at work. Lily had shown up a few hours earlier as usual so people were still filing in and taking sips of their morning coffee before settling down to work. The phones were ringing off the hook and already people were coming through to other departments in the station: a caught graffiti artist, a couple responsible for a domestic disturbance, and a few shaken mugging victims.

Lily sat at her desk and absentmindedly shuffled some of her paperwork. "Where's Scotty?"

Jeffries looked up from his desk and placed a hand over the receiver of his telephone. "He'll be here soon."

"Yeah, I'm sure he'll want to bask in the glory if his latest achievement." Vera joked but didn't look up from his desk, where he was filling in some paperwork.

He'll be here soon. Those words should have comforted Lily but they didn't. She checked the clock on the grey wall for the umpteenth time: Scotty hardly ever arrived as early as her but then again on a normal day he should have been here and settled down to work by now. And yet by the circumstances, yesterday hadn't been the most normal day either. Late that afternoon Scotty had called them with new developments in the case before saying he would have to take the rest of the day off because he felt really ill. It didn't sound like the most convincing explanation, but then again Lily hadn't answered the phone and Stillman had agreed to give Scotty the rest of the day off. She should have been happy with that. But she just hated the way Scotty had left them all hanging.

But at least he _had_ phoned in the latest developments and as a result Lily could feel her heart swell up with pride. She had been right about Thomas: he knew Victoria and had been keeping that a secret. Well that was a secret no more. She desperately wanted to go back to the prison and knock every single secret out of that man but unfortunately Vera and Jeffries had been scheduled for that job. All she could do today was sit back and push some more paperwork out of the way while hoping a miracle would happen. She stared at the space on her desk where she had temporarily placed the picture of Josh and Victoria. It was just something about them…about their smiles, their whole body language that made them magnetic together. With each passing day her desire to prove Josh innocent grew tenfold. Maybe that chance had finally arrived.

Roughly half an hour later Lily spotted a familiar figure out of the corner of her eye. She knew it was Scotty and looked up to smile at him only to feel her heart skip a beat and her mouth fall open into a big O. No he hadn't been sick. Her mind told her. Definitely not sick. Lily's mind slowly began to fit together the pieces and come up with a few more likely reasons of why Scotty had called in sick yesterday. Or rather, it was more like one likely reason of why he had called in sick.

It wasn't a black eye, more like a black and dark purple bruise that covered a massive circular spot on Scotty's left cheekbone. It just rested there while Scotty walked past the arrangement of desks staring straight ahead trying his hardest not to notice if anybody was staring at him. But of course people would be staring at him: Scotty wasn't exactly the type of person to get into brawls on a regular basis and that bruise stuck out like a sore thumb anyhow.

The rest of the team all had very similar reactions and basically stopped what they were doing. Vera let whistle and asked him what happened.

"Adam Raine tried to beat Josh up and I got caught in the crossfire, that's what."

After a few inquires as to why Adam had been down at the jail Jeffries and Vera seemed somewhat satisfied with that answer so Scotty finished the journey towards his desk but Lily's mind was just the opposite. She kept trying to imagine the possible scenario. How hard was Adam's punch? Pretty hard, guessing from the shade of the bruise on Scotty's face. How had Scotty reacted? Did he go and punch Adam? Or did he hold back?

As if her legs were following another mind, Lily found herself away from her desk and walking towards his. She heard Scotty give a groan and a sigh as he slowly eased himself into his chair. He looked up at Lily and gave a smile. "I got hit in the face and yet my whole body's a big stiff this morning. I must be getting old."

Lily found her stomach twisting in knots over Scotty's reaction to her standing beside his desk. Both his words and his smile seemed bitter and forced. Had Adam's punch really changed him that much? Where was the friendly and comforting Scotty that Lily had grown accustomed to?

"What happened?"

Her voice had come out quiet and soft, but a small scowl came over his face. "Didn't you hear me tell the others? I got beat up by a kid."

"I meant did it hurt? Is it hurting now?" Instinctively, Lily reached out to touch his cheek.

The moment her fingers made contact Scotty jerked and slapped her hand away.

"Don't Lily. Just…don't." Scotty said as he pushed away from his desk and jumped up, heading for the lunch room leaving Lily still standing at his desk, numb with shock.

* * *

"I told you, I never knew Victoria." 

Vera would have loved to gone and strangled Thomas who was sitting a few feet away but he wasn't sure he wanted to spend the energy on a serial killer. He could see Jeffries sitting at the table, gripping a pen so tightly in his hand that his knuckles were white.

"Don't give us that crap." Vera spat. "We know you knew her, we know you saw her wearing that orange wristband. You're the one that took this photo."

"And there's another interesting point that pops up." Jeffries joined in.

Thomas started looking a little wary, or was it the detective's imagination? "So?"

"Interestingly enough when Victoria died, nowhere is the orange wristband listed anywhere as her personal effects."

"So?

"We knew she always wore it. She hardly ever took it off." Vera chimed in.

"And interestingly enough…" Jeffries took out a coloured newspaper photo of an arrested Thomas trying to shield his face from the reporters as he made his way to the courthouse. "You're wearing one there."

"She wasn't the only one in the world who was wearing that you know."

"Oh we know. That's why you killed those people. But then that's an interesting point: why would someone who hated those orange wristbands be wearing one himself?"

"And more interestingly." Vera added. "How did you manage to get Josh to keep his mouth shut and go to jail for your murder? What did you do? Threaten him with his life as well?"

Thomas' head sagged in defeat. The detectives had managed to corner him. "I didn't kill her."

"Then why were you wearing her wristband?"

"I swear on my life I didn't hurt her." Thomas said quietly. "She saved my life…how could I have hurt her?"

"Saved your life?" Jeffries and Vera said at the same time. "How?"

"I don't know how…but she did."

_April 2004_

_Thomas' feet echoed dryly along the stone floor but he hardly noticed. He was more in tune with how he felt inside at the moment. It was indescribable at best but it felt something remotely like lava churning inside of his stomach. His mind told him he was stupid for feeling this way but everything else inside of him disagreed. He wandered over to the railing and looked overboard at the waves in the water. It was late afternoon and exams had started so the only people in the water were elderly men and women alongside little ones with their parents. The water looked far away from where he was standing. It was easy…all he had to do was climb over the railing and jump. But not here. It was too close here. There wasn't enough distance. Without meaning to, Thomas felt a single tear slip down his cheek. _

_"I know it's probably none of my business, but can I ask you what's wrong?"_

_He whirled around. That voice had been so soft he had barely heard it but yet at the same time it surprised him. He thought he had been alone up on the viewing balcony of the pool but he had been wrong. A young girl had been watching him from the benches right beside him. She had jet black hair in a high ponytail that fell gracefully past her shoulders and a generally concerned expression in her chocolate brown eyes. It took him a few seconds before he realized where he had seen that girl before._

_"Victoria?"_

_The girl nodded. "Thomas."_

_He could feel his face starting to turn red with the embarrassment of having been caught crying. But for some unknown reason the tears kept coming, no matter how hard he tried to hold them back. The floodgates had opened for him._

_"Hey, what's wrong? Uh…don't cry." Victoria got up from her spot and walked over to Thomas. Much to his surprise she awkwardly put her arms around him. When it became apparent to Thomas that the hug was going to last much longer than a second the floodgates only opened up even more and he instinctively rested his head on her shoulder and put his arms around her waist and yank her closer. Thomas' mind was feeling pretty foolish by that point, but the tears still fell._

_"There, there." Victoria said quietly, patting the back of his head gently with one hand. "Just uh, cry it all out. You'll feel better."_

_Thomas had no idea how long he cried for but when his cries had finally died down into hiccups Victoria released him from her grasp. She had been right; he didn't feel happy-go-lucky again after that crying session but at least he felt like a bit of the weight had been lifted from his heart._

_"Thanks." He said feeling his embarrassment rise another ten-fold._

_"No problem." That was all she said._

_She was probably not one of those people that was good at making conversation that much he could feel. But there was just something about those eyes that made him want to talk to her, that told him he could talk to her._

_So he opened up. About his life and especially about his recently ex-girlfriend. How happy he had felt when he had met her for the first time, how well they got along and especially how he had thought he had finally found someone. They had been together for three years, moved in together and were even thinking of marriage. He had been so happy…until he found out what she had been doing all those times while he had been away at school or away in general. What she had been doing in their house, in their room, in their bed…he closed his eyes and slid down to sit on the ground against the wall, trying to block out the memories that were swimming around in his head._

_She slid down beside him and out of the corner of his eye he thought he could see her muscles twitch a few times as if she was debating whether or not to make physical contact with him again. Perhaps he would have started crying if she did, so it was probably better that she decided against that._

_He didn't really picture in his head what he expected to hear her say. Probably something along the lines of an "I'm sorry." Or "It will be okay." Though the tone of her voice was somewhere along the same lines the words that came out of her mouth was "she doesn't deserve your tears."_

_Yup, that was definitely not on the list of things he had expected her to say. "What?"_

_Unconsciously she hugged her knees to her chest. "If she saw you crying right now…how do you think she'd react? Time can't change what she did, if she did that for as long as you say, this wasn't an accident. She knew what she was doing, and she chose to hurt you anyways. She doesn't deserve what you have to give her—she's proven she doesn't want it. Any of it."_

_Victoria's words were blunt, he had to give her that. But as ridiculous as it sounded his mind almost immediately latched onto the truth behind her words. How would his former girlfriend have reacted at his crying and blubbering?_

_Given everything that had just happened, she would have probably laughed in his face._

_Victoria was right. His girlfriend didn't deserve his tears. Not anymore._

_But those three years had felt like a lifetime, or at least he felt like he always had her in his life. How was he going to continue his life without her? How was he going to get used to being alone once again? Would he ever find someone else? _

_"I don't know." Victoria replied to his questions._

_Thomas felt his face and heart drop even more. What was he going to do? How was he going to pull through? Would other people feel the same in the same situation?_

_Much to his surprise Victoria didn't say anything but chose to slip off the orange wristband and put it into his hands._

_"What are you doing?"_

_She gave a sad smile. "I'm always like this, getting the other person so depressed and not knowing what to say to them afterwards. It's not much, but this little rubber circle has always helped me feel better in the past, whenever I felt alone in the world. I don't know how but it seemed to work. I'm hoping it will work for you too, help pick you back up when you feel down."_

_He stared at the orange circle that was still lying in the palm of his hand. That had almost been a child's foolish gesture, thinking something like that could have helped him feel better. But she was still a stranger to him and any small gesture of the sort was one that let him know she cared._

_Besides, she had hugged him too when they had only known each other for a few minutes. That had to count for something too._

_"But this is yours." He protested. "I wouldn't feel right taking it."_

_She shrugged. "Don't worry, I'll get another one at the library again. They're still probably handing them out."_

_"But you're not going to start feeling lonely again are you?"_

_"Lonely? I sure hope not." Victoria laughed. "I've met some of the best people I could ever hope to meet. I think I can say I've had more than most people will have in a lifetime."_

_Thomas found himself smiling again. Her smile was contagious._

_He had lost his girlfriend long ago, but maybe gaining Victoria as a friend would be even better. _

Present Day

"I told you, I would never lay a finger on her." Thomas insisted, his voice starting to quiver. "I was writing an exam the very hour she was killed. I didn't even find out she was…she was dead until I read it in the papers on Monday."

"You killed all those other people." Vera pointed out.

"Yes. True."

"So why did you kill all those people?" Jeffries asked.

"Don't you get it?" Thomas cried. "It was so she wouldn't be alone!"

Vera blinked a few times in disbelief. "Alone?"

"Exactly!" Tears began streaming down Thomas' face. "When she died she was so alone. She was betrayed by one of her best friends, that Josh guy. So I sent all those people on their way. They're keeping her company up there right now. All of them. Happy. Perfect." The young man tilted his face up to the lights and closed his eyes. As crazy as the notion was, the two detectives swore they saw a wide smile appear on the young man's face.

Jeffries and Vera stood up as two prison guards came to escort Thomas back to his cell. The two men could feel some weird mix of anger, frustration, disbelief, sickness and compassion churn through their hearts and stomachs. Thomas Granger seemed to belong more in a mental institution than in a jail cell.

"So." Vera said finally. "What are the odds that he's telling us the truth this time?"

"We'll find out." Jeffries took out his cell phone and began to dial.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the long delay in uploading. It's a wonderful thing in my life I call school. Writer's block is still persisting, but thankfully not quite as bad (I hope) as before. Interesting thing is, I've run into the guy whom I've based a bit of the character of "Josh" on. Never thought I'd see him again but lo and behold we have a class together again…hopefully nobody is going to die haha. 

Thank you thank you thank you to all my reviewers for last chapter, _jambled, givemecookies, pushpitake_ and _LongislandItalian2_! And thank you for everyone saying they love the slow L/S drama, I really appreciate it.

_Jambled:_ thank you, I hope my writer's block is better too. Thank you for saying I'm making the victim human through the flashback as well. I'm trying my best to portray Victoria as a good person, but one with flaws and bad habits and is essentially, human.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Lilly swung open the door to find Scotty in the lunchroom looking blankly into the freezer. He held a Ziploc bag in one hand that Lilly guessed had contained ice at one point, but now was a bag of cold water. If he had heard the door open he certainly didn't show it. Without a second thought Lilly opened some cupboards and pulled out a couple of new sponges. She soaked them with cold water, put each sponge in a separate plastic bag and put them in the freezer.

"If you can stand to wait for them to freeze, they'd be better icepacks." Lilly explained. "Reusable too. A little trick I learned as a child."

"Oh uh, thanks." Scotty said awkwardly as he shut the freezer door and dumped the ice/water down the drain. "Is there a reason you came in here?"

Lilly tried not to wince as those words hit her harder than she wanted them to. "Yeah, Jeffries and Vera just called from the jail. They said Thomas killed all those people just because he didn't want Victoria to be lonely up there."

Scotty let out a low whistle. "Got to love that logic."

"Yeah, well he said he didn't kill Victoria because he was writing a final exam. An exam that took him three hours."

"And?"

"I did some digging." Scotty opened up the file that was handed to him. Lilly Rush never seemed to stop pulling out the magic, all of Thomas' history for his last year of college education was right in front of his eyes. Thomas' last exam schedule and his last exam which was, coincidently or not, on the exact same day that Victoria had been killed. Looking closer, Scotty realized that the time for the final exam would have overlapped with the murder of Victoria.

"So, what is Lilly Rush saying?" Scotty asked. "Did Thomas Granger skip his final exam and murder Victoria? Or is he innocent because he was writing his exam?"

"The latter." Lilly replied. "Lady Luck was with us today."

"Oh yeah, how so?"

"Professor of the course was a little bit paranoid." Lilly replied. "Take a look."

Scotty flipped over a page and saw a long list of student names.

"Wrote down a list of kids that handed in their test before the time limit was up. Couldn't write down everyone's name when the test was over because there were too many students handing their tests in, but they wrote down the rest of the names when they were marking the exams."

Scotty scanned the short list and didn't find Thomas' name. It wasn't until he scanned the much longer second list that Scotty finally found the name of Granger, Thomas Jefferson. So Thomas had taken the full three hours to write the exam. Victoria had been long gone by then. He wanted to go give a hug or at least a smile for her wonderful detective work, but he couldn't find the strength. All of a sudden he felt so tired. All he could mutter to his partner was a cold thanks.

Lilly spun around on her heels as she watched Scotty walk to the door. "Thanks? That's it?"

He gave a half-hearted shrug. "Yeah, that part of the mystery is solved. Good work." He left the lunchroom before she could reply.

* * *

Lilly Rush felt like she might be starting to go insane.

And the worst part of it was, it was not the case files or the victims that were starting to drive her crazy. No, she was meant for this job, she was meant to solve cold cases. She could probably do this for the rest of her life and still be motivated: there was just this satisfaction in knowing you helped someone, some family out there, given them hope when they thought all their hope had disappeared. Given them some small bit of closure.

No, it was a single person that was starting to drive her crazy, drive her insane.

Scotty.

What _was_ it about Scotty?

She didn't know anymore. But Scotty was getting more and more to her head. She didn't know if she liked that or not.

She watched him at a distance, filing out paperwork, making phone calls. The same old Scotty only slightly more agitated and grumpy. He was looking at the clock. She realized. Trying to calculate how much time had passed. Whether the sponge was cold enough to be used as an icepack. He hung up the phone again and sat back in his chair. Lilly saw her opening and walked to his desk.

"I'm sorry." Lilly said.

Scotty sighed. "Did you tell Adam to punch me?"

"What?" Lilly cried. "Of course not!"

"Then you have nothing to be sorry for." Scotty got up walked past Lilly and towards the door of the lunchroom.

"Then will you at least tell me why you're so cold towards me?" Lilly cried again.

Scotty turned around, a seemingly blank expression on his face mixed in with a sneer. "What? Can't handle your own tactics on yourself?"

"So you're being cold to me just because I was cold to you?" Lilly could hardly believe it. "That's being really childish Scotty, you know that."

"What? And being just plain cold to someone for absolutely no reason isn't?" Scotty pointed out. He swung open the door and paused. "Next time, try to think about how the other side is feeling Lilly."

As the door swung closed again Lilly felt her stomach tie into a million separate knots. He had always called her Lil…and now it was Lilly. Not the comfortable shortened name between friends (or those more than friends) but now it was her full first name. It was formal, uptight, and cold.

It was not the way she wanted to interact with Scotty. Not for the rest of her life.

Scotty felt like he had made a fool of himself again but it was as if he just didn't care anymore. Maybe it was Adam's punch that made him take a step back and take everything into perspective. And that perspective made him feel tired and fed up. Yeah so he had gotten involved with Christina and didn't listen to Lilly's warnings. That had been one of the worst mistakes in his life but couldn't Lilly at least _try _to give him a chance so he can prove to her how much he's changed and would be willing to change? It wasn't as if Lilly hadn't played that card when Ray drove through town last year, she had said a casual goodbye to Scotty then hopped onto the back of that darn motorcycle. Scotty could still remember the way his stomach twisted into knots as he watched her secure her helmet and the way he tried to laugh and convince himself of…well he couldn't remember what he had told himself.

It was almost as if she was taunting him. Look at the bad boy I can ride off into the sunset with…look at all the options I have and can have…

Maybe he could start learning how to ride a bike. Maybe a Harley.

_Stop that_. A voice told him. Lilly ended up ditching Ray for Joseph. And look how well that turned out. He was starting to think that things might have been different this time, Lilly and Joseph. Until Joseph turned out to be just another guy that stomped all over her heart and she was alone again. After working in the homicide department year after year Scotty himself knew how hard it was to come home to a dark and empty place. Sure you could have cats and dogs and other pets, but there was nobody there you could give a hug to, nobody to keep the other side of your bed warm at night. It would have been enough to drive anyone insane. Someone that you could wake up to in the morning, someone that would smile at you (even if it was a tired smile) and ask you how was your day. Scotty was tired of doing everything alone: tired of renting and watching movies by himself, and tired of cooking for one.

Was it so wrong for Scotty to picture something like that for himself? Was it so wrong for him to picture Lilly in that picture as well? But so many things had happened between the two of them, was it even possible to consider the idea of the two of them...they worked in the same department; they were partners above anything else. This was real life after all. It wasn't a fairytale or a movie where everything magically worked out and you would see "The End" appear on the screen.

Besides, what would Stillman say about the two of them? It would only make sense for him to transfer one of them out, both for the team and for their personal lives. But would he really? He was a good and understanding boss, but he was also a fair one. It was hard to say which way he would swing in situations like these. And if Lilly and Scotty ever broke up, things would be undoubtedly be awkward at work.

But that was ridiculous. Scotty told himself. He was thinking about the break-up even before their relationship started. Maybe a transfer out of homicide wouldn't be so bad…

Stop that. He told himself. He had worked this hard to become a Detective, he couldn't think of leaving that post, not now.

He certainly couldn't imagine not coming to work every day and seeing Lilly's face.

* * *

When Vera and Jeffries arrived back at the station Scotty and Lily filled them in on their discoveries. The final exam, the start time, the length of the exam, Thomas' grade, and how likely or unlikely each of the scenarios was.

"That's all fine and dandy, but what I want to know is where we're standing now." Vera finally said.

Lily sighed for the millionth time that day. "Right now? Staring straight at a dead end."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone that is still reading this story. I had a bit of scare this past month or so, I thought I had lost this chapter when in truth I had forgotten I saved it in a different location. Hopefully you guys didn't think I was dead and gone. Hopefully this chapter is a good "filler" chapter; sorry I know nothing much happens here.

Thank you to my reviewers for the previous chapter, _jambled_ and _pushpitake_.


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

The office was dark and Lily heard nothing but silence and the rhythmic ticking of the clock on the wall. The lights had been dimmed a long time ago as most of the detectives had gone home for the evening and the cleaning force had started to move in. Everybody else had gone home as well, except for her and Scotty.

Frankly, she was surprised. Scotty had been staying behind late nearly every night for the past few weeks (ever since they took up the Josh/Victoria case in fact), which was quite out of the ordinary to say the least. Lily was usually the only one who stayed late at the office on a nearly nightly basis. The rest of them had some weird sort of rotation on who stayed late at the office to finish up on paperwork and hopefully follow up on any new leads for their cases. Scotty himself usually left the office after pulling in a reasonable amount of overtime especially on a Friday night, probably leaving for some hot date afterwards or checking up on how his nephews were doing. But that wasn't the case anymore. Minus the black eye fiasco, for the past few weeks Scotty had shown up to work almost as early as Lily had, and left almost when she left as well.

Her mind toyed with the idea that Scotty had pulled in all that extra overtime in the hopes of seeing her face a little longer each day, but she quickly pushed that notion out of her head. He couldn't have a thing for her, could he? But he couldn't have…not after the way he had snapped at her.

Lily looked down at her paperwork but the more she read the words on the pages in front of her the less they stayed in her mind. Was it that late? She checked the clock again. No, it was still pretty early. What was it?

Scotty. It was what he had said earlier that got to her head.

_So being randomly cold to someone else is not childish? Way to go Lilly._ Were those his exact words? She couldn't remember. But it was still the same gist, and she could still remember his accusing eyes that bore into hers. They both knew he was right. She had been cold towards him. And now she had no idea why she had done that. She never realized it until now, but she had taken Scotty's gentle but firm demeanour for granted. She had always assumed she would see another one of his heart-melting smiles directed towards her, but now she wasn't so sure. Oh why, why did one always have to realize what they had only when it was gone? She loved his smile…

She loved him.

That revelation was so shocking the pen slipped out of her hand and crashed onto the desk. She had never dared think those words to herself but once her mind wandered across them it all seemed so obvious, so logical. She loved Scotty and everything about him. The way he half smiled half smirked at something he found silly, the way he could be gentle and kind but also firm and unyielding. It was a long shot for sure, only now the team was starting to reveal little tidbits about their personal lives, their likes and dislikes, but just the same, Lilly loved him.

First time he had seen them together, Josh had commented on the two of them being boyfriend and girlfriend. That was way before Lilly got herself to realize that fact. How did that young boy have that kind of sixth sense? Maybe he was just one of the lucky ones that knew what true love looked like: he and Allison were still together despite the fact that he had spent the last two years of his life in jail. Most girls would have probably found some sort of excuse to break up with him.

However as that realization was taking hold, another feeling began to worm its way into her sub consciousness.

Fear.

She was pushing Scotty away. And if she didn't stop soon, she was going to wakeup one morning and find out he was gone forever. Wake up and discover that he was off and married to another woman, sharing his life and his mind with her while Lilly would wakeup and discover she was still all alone. That thought was unbearable.

Before she knew what she was doing Lilly had pushed open the door to the dim lunch room once again. Scotty was there, putting a warm sponge/icepack back into the freezer in exchange for the other one. He closed the door, turned around and froze at her presence.

"Hi Scotty." She said softly.

"Hi." He replied.

He didn't say her name, so she couldn't accurately judge whether or not he was still feeling cold and bitter towards her. But (she was hoping she wasn't being too hopeful in thinking so) most of his ice cold exterior had vanished. Maybe it was the softness in which she had suddenly said his name.

"I'm sorry I was so cold to you today." Lilly paused. "And…the days before that."

Was he going to snap back at her? For a second that fear held tight onto her mind. She was so scared she had pushed him away forever. There were so many things she wanted to say to him, (such as the fact she liked him) but even the simplest words were stuck on the tip of her tongue.

Scotty looked at her with a new look in his eyes, one that told her he was trying to understand her, trying to understand what she was doing. Surprisingly, Lilly could feel tears in her eyes: tears of frustration. She wished she could have snapped her fingers and made him understand all the things she could not say.

"It's alright." Scotty said at last. "I mean no, it's not alright. But…I'm getting it. At least I'm trying."

"I'm sorry." Lilly said again. "I don't know why I was so cold to you…I just…I don't even know anymore. But I don't want to lose you."

_I don't want to lose you._ Those words kept repeating over and over again in Scotty's head. What did she mean exactly, she didn't want to lose him? He couldn't be sure, but he felt he knew what she meant. In that moment he felt he understood where some of her coldness had come from. She had put up her tough Lilly front when Ray drove through town, and gradually tore it down when she came across Joseph. Now after he had left her heart in pieces, Lilly was scared Scotty would do the same thing to her.

Lilly Rush, _the_ Lilly Rush was scared. That was what Scotty felt.

He wished he knew what to do. In that moment he wished he was one of those guys at the bars, the ones that knew all the moves and all the right things to say to get a woman to smile. Except in this situation he wished he knew the right things to say in order to let Lilly know that she wasn't going to lose him, because he was just as afraid of losing _her_.

He took a step closer. "Lil…" he whispered. "You won't…"

Her heart fluttered with joy once again. He had called her Lil. They were about a foot away from each other but Scotty took a step towards her and she didn't take a step back, so the gap was closed within a few seconds. Somehow that gap seemed to get smaller and smaller…was she hallucinating?

No. She realized with a start. Scotty (or was it her?) had leaned in closer so their faces were inches apart. She dared not to move, she dared not to even breathe for fear she would wake up and find that everything that happened had been just a dream.

Scotty jerked his head off to once side and straightened up again. Lilly was confused, and then disappointed. Why did Scotty suddenly jerk his head away? Did he not feel the same chemistry she had felt mere seconds ago?

The piercing shrill of a ringing phone entered into her conscious thoughts.

The phone was ringing.

Darn that phone.

But at least Scotty hadn't jerked his head away because he didn't like her. That hope remained.

As much as she hated it, Lilly watched Scotty exit the lunchroom and pick up the ringing phone. His face was certainly worthwhile to watch: his expression changed from that of confusion to wonderment to pure happiness. She opened the door just as the conversation was wrapping up.

"Yes. Got the address. Thank you SO much, this means a lot. No don't worry it's not too late. Yes we'll be there soon."

"What was that about?" She asked him.

Scotty held up a pad which no bore the name and address of a person, scrawled in hurried and nearly illegible handwriting. "Meghan Donaway. Volunteered at the Wellness Centre and the University. Says she remembers talking to Josh just before Victoria was killed."

"Think she'll be our break in the case?" Lilly wondered aloud.

"Only one way to find out."

* * *

It was a small in a grey and drab looking apartment building just outside of campus. Inside the apartment itself the rooms were rather plain but at least the place was neat and tidy. The kitchen and bedroom were off to one side, out of view while the living room held sturdy chairs and a coffee table, a small TV in a corner and the occasional movie poster was plastered onto the plain white walls.

Meghan was a friendly looking girl with sparkling green eyes and a slightly found face and build. The only difference between the two years was the length of her hair. It went from being in a short almost boyish style haircut, to long sweeping brown locks and back again.

"Thank you for coming so late." She said as she handed the two detectives each a hot mug of water. "I just got back from exchange a few days ago and I didn't hear about this whole case being reopened until some of my friends from the Wellness Centre came over this afternoon. I thought I may as well try the station and see if anyone was there; see if I could help in any way."

"That's greatly appreciated." Lilly answered. If only every person they talked to was this helpful, they would be putting most of the Philly task force out of a job.

"So you said you remember talking with Josh?" Scotty asked.

Meghan nodded. "And Victoria."

"Victoria?" This was news indeed to Lilly. It had seemed like such a long time since she had spoken to Ryan who had alerted them to the Wellness Centre in the first place. Yet he had been sure that Victoria had been waiting for Josh. How on earth could Meghan have talked to Victoria then? Meghan must have talked to Victoria before she talked to Josh.

Scotty was unfazed by the news. "What did they talk to you about?"

Meghan looked uncomfortable as she reluctantly told her she couldn't disclose the details of what they had talked about since it was all confidential. But at least she felt confident she could tell them that the two of them had come in over concerns about one of Victoria's friends.

"I was only a few years older than them, but I can still remember the two of them coming in that day, looked like uneasy little kids with no other place to turn." Meghan smiled to herself, almost lost in the memory. Her face became serious again. "Sadly I couldn't get anything out of Victoria, so I decided to try with Josh instead."

_Apr. 2004_

_The door to the small room clicked open and Victoria quickly shuffled out followed by Meghan. Upon seeing his friend Josh quickly closed the magazine he had been reading and stood up. He asked Victoria how she was doing and how the talk went, but the only reply that was given was the polite wish to leave. But Meghan couldn't let Josh go, not yet. She wanted to speak with him alone for a moment._

_"Wait outside for me alright?" Josh assured Victoria. "I'll be there soon, I promise." He followed Megan into the small conference room and closed the door. She made no invitation for Josh to sit, but Josh wouldn't have taken that invitation if it had been offered to him: they were both to nervous to sit down. Meghan watched him adjust his arms and hands, from having them folded against his chest, to stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans, pulling them out and folding them only to return them to the pockets a few moments later. She had to admire how much he cared for his friend: if he was any less of a friend he would have never have shown up with her._

_"Did she talk to you?" he finally asked._

_Meghan sighed and sat on the edge of the small table. "No, she didn't say much. It looked like she wanted to in the beginning but decided against it afterwards."_

_Josh leaned against one of the blank walls, looking a little dejected. Yes, he did seem to care about his friend a lot. Maybe she was more than his friend, but it wasn't Meghan's place to question that._

_"You did the right thing in coming here." Meghan assured him._

_"I only wish I knew what to do, I was hoping if I convinced her to come here, she would want to talk."_

_The only thing that Meghan did know was the fact Victoria seemed to fear for her life. It had been obvious, watching the young girl as her eyes glanced over everything in the room but Meghan herself, the way she was so hesitant and nervous about revealing what she knew. It was almost as if telling her secrets, her thoughts and desires to someone else would have put her on the execution list. That was the vibe Meghan had got. Meghan could not help but stress, over and over again to Josh, that if this was indeed the case this was out of her hands and they needed to bring in the authorities._

_Josh didn't reply._

_"Josh?" Meghan said slowly and gently. "If you two fear for her life…you need to get the authorities involved."_

_"That's the thing." He burst out. "We're both confused, we're not sure if it is a real threat to her life, or if it…if it…" Giving up the fight against gravity, Josh slid down against the wall and buried his head into his hands._

_Meghan knelt down beside Josh and placed one hand on his shoulder. He didn't sob or shake but just remained where he was, silent. She remained silent as well: she had seen it many times during her volunteering days at the Centre. This was the sign she had been waiting for, his breakdown. She knew soon after any breakdown the person was most likely to talk and give them both the answers that they needed to hear._

_"I don't know her personally." Josh finally said. "But from all the things that Victoria has told me about her…I just know something's wrong. She's acting out of character. That's why I'm so scared this could be something…something…" _

_"Something serious." Meghan finished._

_He nodded, and then let out a little laugh. "I should have told her it was a horrible idea, pretending to be going out with a guy. But she was just trying to do what she thought was best, what she thought would make everyone happy. We never thought this would or could have happened. She just wanted to do what she could to help…"_

_"Josh." Meghan almost begged. "Please promise me you'll go to the police. Promise me."_

_She hoped he would listen._

Present Day

"I always thought they should have gone to the police or something." Meghan lamented. "I still find it so sad that Josh lost it first and killed her instead."

"So you never questioned if Josh was the real killer or not?" Scotty asked.

Meghan looked a little bewildered. "Well that's what all the paper said right?"

The detectives didn't reply to that question, but simply thanked Meghan for her time and informed her they would be in touch again if the need ever arose.

"There is only one instance we know of where Victoria pretended to be in a relationship with a guy." Lilly whispered to Scotty. "And that was with Ryan. Problem was, everybody thought it was real."

"So if that was the case, then who would be the most pissed off at such a relationship?" Scotty wondered.

A small smile spread over Lilly's face. "Katie."

* * *

**Author's Note:** A huge apology once again to everyone for not updating in months! I confess taking this long of a break has made it hard to keep focus and motivation to write until the end. But from all the wonderful reviews I have gotten throughout the writing of this whole story, I am determined to finish, and pray that you will all enjoy the ending.

Thank you to all my reviewers for the last chapter, _Max Fuchs_, _Heidi,_ _LongislandItalian2, Elle452, CB101, _and_ anothergirl!_

**Max Fuchs:** Your reviews are always appreciated. Thank you for praising my filler chapter! Hope you liked this one as well!

**Heidi:** I guess this doesn't qualify as updating soon…sorry!

**LongislandItalian2:** thanks for the review!

**Elle452:** Thank you so much for your praise! Hopefully this chapter is up to par as well.

**CB101:** Wow thank you for reviewing many chapters of my story! I appreciate all the reviews I have gotten so far, and I can only hope they will continue.

**Anothergirl:** Thanks! I hope I will be able to post up another chapter soon!


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Lilly loved her job because in some small way, she felt like she was helping justice along, closing old cases and finally giving families some closure. And as cynical as it was, in some small way Lilly loved payback.

"You come in here, spitting fire and brimstone at us because we're reopening the case when it truth you were the one that had the secret to keep." She said to a nervous Katie in the interrogation room. As hard as she tried, she couldn't help but insert a certain tone of joy into her voice and feel the corners of her mouth twitch slightly upwards.

"Secret?" The young girl stuttered.

"You murdered Victoria."

"What?"

"And by a pure stroke of luck, Josh took the blame."

"No!"

"You thought you were home free."

"No!"

"Until we reopened the case, and you started to get scared we would find the real killer this time."

"That is outrageous!"

"Is it?" Lilly shouted back. In the brief exchange she had risen from her chair and walked around the table in a confident circle. At that last outburst she had thrown her face right in front of Katie's, glaring at her with those cold blue eyes. "Why else would you have come to us that day and demanded we lock up Josh forever and throw away the key?"

"Because he's the one who did it!"

"How are you so sure?"

Katie looked bewildered. "I was there every day of the trial. All the evidence pointed towards him. They found him with the gun in his hand, fingerprints on the gun. Who else could it have been?"

That's what we want to find out. Lily thought in her mind. She had looked over the case file a million times by now, and if she hadn't taken the crazy journey in trying to solve the case, she would have probably written Josh off as the killer as well.

"Oh quit your blubbering, kid." Vera emerged from the corner and pounded his fist onto the table, making Katie jump. "We were teenagers once as well. We talked to some friends of yours. You guys went out for nearly two years; everyone knew Ryan was your first serious relationship."

"And my last." Came the soft reply.

"Understandable, really." Lilly said in that soft, sympathizing tone she knew would work on some suspects. She knew it would never work for those criminals with a hard motive, the ones that went into a situation knowing they were going to harm the person they believed had solely wronged them. But it would work on someone like Katie: they were the kinds of so-called "criminals" that Lilly was used to dealing with. They were the kinds of people that were genuinely good, and genuinely had a conscience, but for whatever reason became caught up in the heat of the moment and done something they would have never done in their everyday rational lives.

"You went out for nearly two years." She continued. "In that time you probably went through a lot together. Fights, make-ups, you met each other's parents. That sort of thing doesn't come around very often, it's the type of special thing you treasure even when it's gone. You were his girl."

"I was." Katie softly repeated. "I was his girl."

"You were hurt enough when you guys broke up." Lilly pressed on. "You thought you could deal with the separation, you thought you could deal with anything that came your way."

"Until you thought he was going out with your best friend." Vera had sensed Lilly's directly and expertly carried on her train of thought. "And in that moment you saw the real Victoria: the selfish little brat that had stood by for two years, ready and waiting, to sink her fangs into Ryan the minute you guys said goodbye."

"Don't you talk about her like that!" Katie shouted as tears streamed down her cheeks.

The detectives became silent because of her sudden outburst.

"Don't talk about her like that." She repeated in nothing but a whisper. She hung her head and rocked slightly back and forth, the river of tears still falling from her eyes. "She shouldn't have died. I should have been the one."

"And why is that?"

She looked up again. "Between the two of us, she was the better one. She was the one that remained loyal and true, to all her friends: I went and discarded our six year friendship in the blink of an eye, all because I thought she was going out with Ryan."

"That's what they purposely made it look like: how could you know any different?" Lilly said.

"Even if that was true, even if they were dating, I should have never acted in the manner I did." Katie mourned. "She loved Steven, did I ever tell you that? It was a foolish sixteen-year-old's version of love, but it was love regardless. When he asked me out, I didn't like him like that, but I was still worried she would freak out at me. She didn't. She would have been happy for us if we had ever…if we had ever…"

"Started dating?"

She nodded. "I should have done that for her, tried to be happy and accept it. Maybe I was accepting on the outside, but I was boiling with rage on the inside. I wanted revenge. I felt like Ryan was still mine, and she had taken something of mine. So I hatched a plan to take something of hers."

"What plan?"

"I knew she was in love with Mike. And I used that to my advantage."

"We heard…" Lilly wanted to say 'rumours', but somehow that word seemed to taint Victoria's reputation somehow. Rumours were usually associated with something nasty or damaging, and Lilly could see nothing technically wrong with Victoria's love situation, even if she did go on that one date with Adam and turn him down afterwards. "…we heard that Victoria was in love with Mike."

Katie nodded. "She was. At least the last time I knew, she was. She wouldn't have dared to anything, because she knew that Mike had a crush on me, though he wasn't going to do anything because I was and had been Ryan's girl. I had been his best friend's girl."

It definitely was a soap opera.

But tall…blonde…handsome. Those were the words Victoria had described. So she had been in love with Mike at one point, could that point have been switched to Josh? The two boys were tall, blonde and handsome. Josh and Victoria had become such close friends, was it possible she found herself falling in love with that boy and falling out of love with Josh? If Victoria had refused to openly acknowledge her love for Mike, how easy was it for her to switch to liking Josh? Did she hide that part of her too? Was Adam the lucky third contestant?

"How did you use that information against her?" Vera pressed on.

"It was the classic plan of revenge."

_April 2004_

_How long had it been? It could have been only minutes, but minutes often seemed ten times longer when you were making out with a boy._

_Katie knew what she was doing. As Mike's hands roamed her entire back she could read his kisses. They were lustful, hungry kisses. So he did still have a thing for her. But even after the break-up he had still treated her in the same manner, just like a friend. He was always so noble, unlike another individual she knew. She threaded her fingers through Mike's hair and pretended to respond to his kisses, kissing him back just as hard and making sure she groaned from deep within her throat every once in awhile._

_The door creaked open to reveal a silhouette. Katie pretended to be shocked and hurriedly disentangled herself from the arms of Mike. But in the back of her mind she knew exactly what she was doing. She had planned it all out weeks in advance. A year-end party to celebrate the end of exams…she would lure Mike into one of the upstairs rooms…they would talk which would eventually lead to making out…Victoria was sure to find out. She always wondered where Katie was after a few minute's absence. Now her plan was falling into place perfectly._

_She could see Mike's face turn beet red as he stuttered out a hello. Of course he would feel shameful with that noble nature of his: he had let his hormones get the better of him and allowed himself to make out with his best friend's ex. That was untouchable territory for him. Unfortunately, not for some people. Katie drew herself up to her full height to issue her sweet revenge._

_She could clearly see that Victoria was beside herself with shock, her small mouth was open in a perfect circle. They both knew the reason behind her shock: Victoria had spent many sleepovers spilling her innermost secrets to Katie, and one of those secrets had been her crush on Mike. The last sleepover they had was in senior year of high school, and perhaps Victoria had dropped her crush on Mike since that time, but if Katie knew her well enough, which she felt she did, Victoria didn't let go of her crushes easily. If anything, it had to be an intense shock just to see her best friend making out with a guy she had loved madly at one point in her life._

"_What are you doing?" Victoria finally managed to sputter out._

"_What you once did to me." Katie tried to make her voice sound as cold and as harsh as she felt._

"_What do you mean?"_

"_You know what I mean."_

"_No…I don't. How could you…"_

_So she still couldn't say those words, not in front of Mike. That probably meant she still harboured some small trace of feelings for him._

"_You're my friend." Victoria finally said. "How could you do this?" _

_Time to issue the final blow. Katie thought. She wondered why it had not happened sooner._

"_You're not my friend. Our friendship is over."_

_If Victoria had remained silent any longer, she would have started bawling._

"_You can't possibly mean that." She pleaded._

"_Yes." Katie said. "I do. We were never friends. Get out of my house."_

_Fighting tears, Victoria tried to straighten up before she ran out of the room. In doing so, she ran into Ryan, who had just climbed up the stairs and stood just outside the doorway. Katie was slightly aware of the fact that Mike may have already put two and two together and realized she had just been using him to make Victoria jealous, but she would worry about that later._

"_What happened?" Ryan asked Victoria, but she just tearfully shook him off and told him to ask Katie. A minute late the thuds on the stairs had stopped and the front door had slammed closed with such force the whole house shook. Katie tried to tell Ryan as much of the story as she could without revealing any details, but there was no hiding her true motives. She could not help but feel her heart fill with glee as she watched the change in expression on Ryan's face._

"_What the hell did you do?" Ryan finally yelled. "She did this all for you!" _

Present Day

"He stormed out that night, but came back and told, both of us, the story next day." Katie admitted. "The whole story, from start to finish."

The detectives didn't need to do any guesswork; they could just glance at Katie's face to know her reaction to that story, the true story, all those years earlier. She had never guessed the true motive behind Ryan and Victoria, and having an understandably false story from Mike did not help matters. With that false knowledge, Katie had crossed the line and made some horrible decisions that she was going to regret for the rest of her life.

"She died thinking I was mad at her, that I didn't want her to be my friend." Katie mourned. "Truth was, she was one of the most incredible friends I ever had. She was like my sister. I betrayed my sister."

"Did you ever try to reach her, apologize to her?" Lilly asked.

Katie nodded. As soon as she could stand on her own two feet again, she had tried contacting Victoria by any and every means possible. She phoned and left quite a few tearful messages wishing to see her, but Victoria never returned her calls. She drove by her house and knocked on the door, but nobody answered. The last time she had ever seen Victoria…it drove a stake through her heart every time remembered that.

"All I wanted was to make things right." Katie said. "She was the one that was supposed to have been mad at me, not the other way around. But Josh took that away from me. From us."

"Because he killed her?" Vera offered.

Katie nodded. The detectives each let out a sigh. It seemed like they had reached a dead end, yet again.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

It was back to jail they went.

It still boggled Lilly's mind, the fact that every new lead and every suspect they re-interrogated lead them all back to the same person, to the same boy. They had retraced Victoria's life up until her last few days, and the evidence against Josh still seemed overwhelming. What could have possibly happened between that last weekend party, and the death that occurred two days later? What could have happened in that time to make Josh an innocent man?

There was no good reason in the back of Lilly's mind, other than the gut feeling that he was innocent. But her gut feeling had been wrong before, and that's what bothered her the most. She didn't want her gut feeling to be wrong, not this time.

"So what do you think, Lil?" Scotty asked her.

"Huh? What?" She felt a hot flush spread over face and neck as she blushed, realizing that the details of the case had distracted her from Scotty.

Luckily, he didn't seem to notice. "Do you think Josh is innocent or guilty?"

"Honestly, I don't know." She replied.

He gave a bit of a chuckle that sounded more like a snort. "Well if you ask me, this Josh guy better be innocent."

That caught her a bit by surprise. The new and emerging details of the case had taken them through so any twists and turns even now nobody could agree on a clear answer or a clear opinion of who was guilty and who was innocent. Why did Scotty have such a strong opinion? Granted, it was a better one than had he insisted that Josh was guilty.

Scotty saw the confusion on his face and gave her a half silly smile. "Because if he was guilty," he explained, "then all of our hard work would have been for nothing, since it really changes nothing and therefore in the end we've just been led on a wild goose chase. I would much rather our hard work prove him innocent."

Lilly couldn't hold back a small giggle. It was refreshing to see that boyish side of Scotty peeking through again. She never knew how much she had enjoyed that light side of him until he had turned cold on her. It felt good to have him back.

Two people rushed past her, yelling.

"Come on man, this way!"

"Is he going to make it?"

"Don't know man, come on!"

They ran towards many more chaotic voices that were just around the corner. They were all yelling, screaming, yelling with each other, yelling at each other.

Scotty and Lilly exchanged a single look before they sped up their pace. The whole world seemed to be running towards the cells that were around the corner. Josh was housed in one of those cells. It couldn't be…could it?

Lilly found herself sprinting down the rest of the hallway and running around the corner.

It was Josh's cell. The bars were open and a few of the correctional officers were surrounding the open cell, while even more seemed to be inside. They could hear the voices crystal clear now.

"Somebody get a knife man!"

"His face is going blue!"

"Lift his body up, lift him up!"

It was Josh. Somehow he had managed to twist his bed sheet into a rope and tied it around the bars of his small cell window. There he was now, hanging, as the guards tried everything they could to save his life.

Josh. The good, proud boy that Lilly thought she knew…there he was hanging from the small cell window, in the midst of committing suicide.

Lilly crumpled to the floor as the whole world raced around her.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Sorry about the long wait again, but hopefully posting these two chapters somewhat makes up for it. Only a couple more chapters to go! A huge thank you to all those that reviewed last chapter! Thanks so much to _Max Fuchs_, _LongislandItalian2, CheekyBabe 101, givemecookies, anothergirl, BlueRetriever _and _fussyrussy!_

Max Fuchs: Hopefully these couple of chapters were also worth the wait.

BlueRetriever: Thank you so much for your wonderful review! It was great to have some constructive criticism, especially on the Lilly vs. Lil thing. To me I had always viewed "Lil" as a nickname and thus to me it was more personal than Lilly, since you come up with nicknames for the people you are more familiar with. But I also see your point of view too. I hope this is a case of "no right or wrong, it's just an opinion."


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Lilly had never lost it, not like that before. But then again she had never really witnessed someone trying to commit suicide, especially not from someone as seemingly steady and gentle like Josh. In the short amount of time that the team had known him, he had managed to touch their lives, perhaps Lilly's most of all.

If it weren't for Scotty, Lilly was sure she would have broken down. If Scotty was a nervous wreck on the inside he hid it well. He was the strong and silent life raft as he held a trembling Lilly close to his cheek, one hand around her shoulders while the other patted her hair and head with a silent, steady hand. They stood there for years before Lilly felt her mind regain control of her muscles once again. Scotty steered her to a nearby waiting room and sat her down on one of the hard benches. He came back a few minutes later and Lilly realized a cup of hot water had appeared in his hands.

The images still haunted her. The few seconds she had seen kept replaying over and over in her mind. The white bed sheet around his neck, tears streaming down the young boy's face as he tried so hard to kick everyone in an effort to keep them back. Keep everyone back as he suffocated himself, as he tried so hard to give up the fight to live…Lilly felt a shudder down her spine. She concentrated on the steaming cup of liquid in her hands.

Slowly, her mind began to concentrate on something else too. All this time Scotty had his arms around her, patting her shoulder, reassuring her, protecting her. He took a split second to give a small but gentle kiss to her forehead, and that patch of skinned tingled with delight afterwards.

It was surely inappropriate, but Lilly couldn't help thinking of the same words over and over again. That kind of thing happens once in a lifetime. Once in a lifetime and you got to hold on or lose it forever. Lilly couldn't remember how many times she had said those words to someone else. Maybe it was time she started believing in those words. Maybe this was her once in a lifetime. Maybe he was her once in a lifetime.

"You ok Lil?" he whispered.

Lil, he had called her Lil again. Not the slightly formal "Lilly" but Lil. The type of name she was only called by her colleagues and by the very few others that felt comfortable enough with her she considered them her friends, and possibly those more than friends...

"Thank you."

"For what?" She had never noticed how cute he looked when he was confused.

"Everything."

He understood what she meant. For lack of a better term, it had been her cryptic way of saying "thank you", "I forgive you", "I'm sorry" and possibly "I love you" all in one. It was the kind of feeling that was so indescribable, but judging by the caring look on his face, he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"You're welcome."

She placed the cup of water beside her on the bench and snuggled deeper into Scotty's arms. She needed to feel his warm arms around her, assuring her that everything was going to be alright. She knew it wasn't her thing to rely on guys but for once in her life she wanted to know what it felt like to rely on a guy for some emotional support. She wanted to take a break from being the headstrong Lilly Rush, the one that paraded around and announced to the world that she didn't need a guy.

Scotty took that opportunity to wrap his arms even tighter around her. He gave another light kiss to her forehead before resting his cheek against it. They stayed like that for the longest time, neither one of daring to move a muscle and break the sweet embrace.

If those terrible moments had not occurred, Lilly would have wondered whether or not she had found heaven. But in that sense if those events had never happened, if Josh had never tried to kill himself, the two of them may never have never reached this stage.

How funny fate was.

Hours later the two detectives entered one of the hospital cells, which was really nothing more than a white hospital bed in the middle of the room with bars on the windows and doors. The on-site doctor had checked up on Josh and pronounced him stable enough to receive visitors, but Lilly and Scotty still held their breaths as they stepped into the room. There was Josh sitting on the plain white bed with his knees drawn close to his chest like they had seen him so many times before. If they had not witnessed what had happened mere hours ago, they would have considered him more or less normal. But after what they had witnessed…it was hard for Lilly and Scotty not to go back to that.

Lilly felt her throat close up with emotion as she let go of Scotty's hand to sit at the foot of the bed. She croaked out a hello to the young boy.

Josh had been watching Lilly and Scotty from the moment they entered his cell hand in hand. He studied them silently with the same careful stare but Lilly swore there was a flicker of delight in those still stunning blue eyes.

"Are you two together now?" he asked.

Lily held her breath for a second, not daring to answer. She wanted to say yes, but were they really together? All they had acknowledged were mutual feelings. They hadn't kissed (not on the lips), or held hands before that moment; heck they hadn't even gone on a date! But those things didn't scare Lilly as much as the thought that Scotty wasn't ready to admit they were a couple.

It the end it was Scotty who answered.

"Yes." He said. "We are."

There was a flicker of a smile. "I'm glad."

As much as Lilly wanted to smile and confide in Josh like a giddy school girl in love for the first time, that wasn't the reason she was here. She had work to do, she had a mystery to solve, and she had closure she needed to bring for so many people. This case had bore such a grave emotional weight to all those lives it had touched the first and second time around…Lilly didn't want to think about what would happen if Josh didn't want to tell.

He didn't want to. She reminded herself. That's why you found him with the bed sheet around his neck.

She tried not to tremble again.

"All leads and stories have led us back to one person." She said. "You."

Josh remained silent.

"I think I know what happened, but we need you to tell us, so we can let everyone else know and close the case."

"Then why don't we leave it at that, if you know what happened? Why do you need me to tell you?"

"Because you were there, Josh. The story would not be believed unless it came from your mouth."

Josh's lip trembled and his hands clenched into fists as he fought for self-control.

"Josh." Lilly said as softly and gently as she could. She was so close she could almost feel it. But she had to be careful. As much as she wanted him to spill his secrets as fast as possible, she also knew if she pressed too fast too hard and too soon it would ruin everything. All their hard work would be gone forever. She could feel tears coming to her eyes but at the same time they would not fall.

Ever since that last interview with Katie, Lilly had carried around a theory of how Victoria died. But until Josh opened his mouth to prove that right or wrong, it was just that. A theory. She had to tread carefully.

"I know what Victoria must have meant to you, what she must have done for you. Those kinds of people…they're hard to find. You could almost say they happen once in a lifetime."

"Everybody thinks I'm silly or stupid." Josh admitted quietly. "But as a friend…she was…she was my once in a lifetime. I loved her."

"What I don't understand is why, why, _why_ on earth would you do this?" Lilly pressed on. "You didn't kill her. Why would you want her friends and family to go on believing a lie?"

"You don't get it do you?" Josh said. "It's tough when people don't have a source to put all the blame on. If they knew what really happened…it would break their hearts."

"Because Victoria wasn't the sweet, happy and steadfast girl they all knew." Lilly finished.

Josh raised his head then lowered it back down again. Lilly took that as a confirmation of her suspicions. But it seemed like a lifetime before Josh was willing to open up his mouth again. Lilly had almost given up hope.

"You know it's funny." He finally said. "Some days she should have been given an Oscar for her performance. If I hadn't been through what I had, I may have never noticed."

"Then why don't you tell them?" Lilly replied. "Tell her friends and family what they missed out on."

"I can't." he repeated. "Like I said, it would break their hearts. They would have grieved ten times as more if they knew the truth the first time around."

"Josh."

Everyone turned and stared in amazement at the source of the voice. There stood Allison in the doorway with tears brimming in her eyes. How she managed to convince security at the front desk to let her see Josh while the two detectives were there was beyond Lilly's knowledge. But she was glad the young girl was there.

"Allison." He said weakly. "What are you doing here?"

"I had to see you." She said tearfully. "All these years…and I never had the courage to say I'm sorry."

She walked over and knelt down beside the bed, taking one of his hands in her own. He looked bewildered, but soon recovered and stroked her hair and the side of her face with his free hand.

It had to have been love.

"Why are you sorry?" he asked softly.

"I should have trusted you." Allison stuttered. "With her. You've never given me a reason not to trust you, I've trusted you so many times before. I realize now…you've had me and you've had your family to help you pull through, but you've never had a friend to help you pull through. Until Victoria."

"She's gone now." Josh said sadly. "She's gone."

"Josh." Lilly tried again. "How do you think Victoria would feel right now if she could see you? To see what you did? Wouldn't that break_ her_ heart?"

Silence greeted her again. She could tell by the look in his eyes, everyone knew she was right.

"Please Josh." She quietly begged. "Her family, her friends, they want answers. I'm sure Victoria wouldn't want you to spend the rest of your life here. Not when you're still young, when you have so much potential."

Lilly tried to be strong, but she could feel herself breaking. She was breaking, breaking in those pale blue eyes that held all the answers.

"Please Josh." She could feel her voice cracking under the force of her tears. "Please. Tell us who killed her."

She was breaking, she could feel it, but somehow she knew it didn't matter. By a pure miracle Allison had arrived and now was clenching Josh's hand with such a force of love both their hands shook. He was responding to that, she could tell. He was breaking under Allison's love.

"Please tell them, Josh." Allison echoed. "Please. They need to know."

He finally looked at Lilly with those blue eyes. They were filled with such a deep sadness that her heart started to break anyway. "We did. We killed her."

"Who?"

"Everyone."

* * *

April 2004 

The sun was slowly setting off in the distance, somewhere behind Josh's back. It cast an insanely long shadow to the pavement in front of him. Perhaps he should have turned around and stared in wonder at how nature was still so pure and innocent among the triumphs of mankind. Or maybe wondered about simpler things like completion of his final exam. But his mind and heart were filled with anger as he talked to the person he was supposed to have loved. And that same person was mad at him.

"I can't believe you went and saw her again!" Allison's tiny voice struck hard into his ear. "And you choose to tell me after all this time? Out of what? Guilt?"

"Look Allison!" he retorted. "You went about this totally wrong okay? Victoria's my friend and I can choose whomever I want to be my friends! She was in trouble, she needed my help. What the heck was I supposed to do?"

"Why couldn't one of her so-called other friends have stepped in to help her? Huh? Explain that! Or did she just want her 'special friend' to be the one?"

Josh gripped his cell phone in frustration. It was so simple, all he could do was tell Allison that one sentence, to explain to her why he had done what he did, but all the words were lost to him now. There was no combination of words that could explain everything.

In the distance he could see a familiar figure quickly walking to some unknown destination. He recognized her by her way of walking and with a second glance and a jump in his heart, he realized it was Victoria. He had to go and talk to her, apologize for Allison if he could.

"I don't have time for this." He told his girlfriend. "We'll talk about this later." He hung up on her before she could even reply.

He couldn't help but stare at Victoria as she made her way up the slight hill. Something about her was wrong. Her walk usually reflected her character: slow, steady, easygoing. But she was walking too quickly now, too hurried. Josh knew for a fact that Victoria always took the bus home: but now she took a sharp right when she was still a block away from the busses. Classes were out, finals almost finished, where on earth could she go? He opened his phone again and quickly dialed her number as he began to chase after her. The phone was ringing and ringing…and ringing. But she was still walking with the same attempt at a hurried pace and made no attempt to answer her phone. He saw her hurrying up the stairs and entering the aquatic centre through one of the back doors. He had no choice but to follow her. He gave up trying to call and tucked the phone into his pocket before he started running.

Josh made his way up the steep concrete steps. The spring up the stairs and the combined sense of dread and adrenaline made his heart beat furiously and his throat dry and scratchy. He uttered a silent curse for feeling so out of shape even though he knew that was not generally the case. His shoes squeaked softly against the tiled floor and he let the door bang close behind him. Victoria didn't even flinch.

"Hey Victoria." His voice came out in a squeak. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah." She finally said. "Things are fine."

It was a lie, and they both knew it. Everything was not fine, every bone in Josh's body told him that. Even after all this time, she still had her back towards him.

"What are you hiding?" he asked.

At first she just turned her head and looked at him over her shoulder. That look nearly scared the living daylights out of him. It just wasn't the Victoria that he had seen, and known. Her eyes were dead. Blank. Like she was just so tired she didn't care about life anymore. But slowly, ever so slowly she turned around to face him and reveal what she had been hiding in her hands.

No. No. It couldn't be.

But it was. Josh recognized what she was holding in her hand.

A gun.

"Where…where did you get that?" he asked.

She looked down and stared at the handgun as if she was seeing it for the first time. "Doesn't matter."

"What are you going to do?" His brain was frozen, the wheels in his head weren't turning as fast as they usually did. Was the gun locked on safety? Did Victoria even know how to do that? Maybe it wasn't on safety, but locked and loaded. He couldn't take that chance. He had to assume it was.

She gave him a weak smile. "The right thing."

"You don't mean that."

"Yes I do. I've got nothing left in my life."

"Yes you do." Josh tried desperately. Why couldn't his mind think? "You've got family, you've got your friends."

"Friends?" she half snorted, half cried. "Ryan's going to kill me because I screwed up the plan, Mike's going to blame me because he was in love with Katie and she used him to get back at me. And Katie…our friendship is over. She hates me now."

"They don't mean that."

"They do."

Her pillars were crumbling, and Josh could see that. Especially with Katie…that pillar was the most crucial. She had once been Victoria's stronghold, all the way back in high school. He had known from the stories Victoria had once told him. When the world was teasing and mocking everything about her, the way she dressed, the way she talked, the way she was socially shy and awkward, when her parents were going through (and still going through) many rough patches and seemed to be on the brink of divorce, Katie had been her friend. Katie had been the one to tell Victoria to ignore all those teasing and mocking voices, and to walk through life with her head held high. Katie had been a true friend.

And now that pillar was gone.

"But what about me?" his voice came out in a whine, but he didn't care. He was trying every last tactic that he could think of, he was trying to come up with every last reason he knew for her to stay alive. "You've got me."

She smiled at him. "Silly boy. You've been just fine without me for the first twenty years of your life, I'm sure you're going to do just fine without me for the next twenty."

"You don't know that." He said hoarsely.

She never stopped smiling at him. "I do."

"I've been there." Josh tried again, desperate. "You think there's no way out, that you've reached rock bottom. There's always a way out, believe me. No matter how bad you think your life is, there were always happy memories, weren't there? What happy memories do you have?"

Victoria almost smiled. "I remember you asked me that same question once, and I never really replied. It's silly really, but remember those two hours before our presentation? You skipped your class so we would have more time to practice. That feels like a lifetime ago. So silly…"

"No it's not silly." Josh interrupted. "That's a great memory Victoria, and you've got to hold onto that."

She gave him another weak smile. "If you ever…if you ever meet Adam, please tell him that I love him, and that I'm sorry I never gave him a chance. Please tell him that."

"Don't say that." Josh pleaded. "Why don't you tell Adam yourself? He'd appreciate it much more if it came from you." He had to try something, anything to keep her breathing for a few more minutes.

A little laugh echoed from her lips. "It's to late now."

"No it's not. It's never too late."

The end was coming. Every bone in his body was telling him so. But he couldn't move. He couldn't move.

"Goodbye Josh. I love you."

"Nooooooooooooooooooooo."

It was only then that Josh found his feet weren't glued to the floor after all, nor were his muscles frozen. His took a step then another but the only thing that greeted him was the deafening bang that echoed and rang in his ears. He froze for a split second before his mind kicked in once again. _Move you idiot, move!!_

The blood had splattered everywhere.

It was all over the floor, some over the walls, but that was of little importance now. In slow motion her body crumpled to the ground and the gun bounced twice on the hard marble floor and came to rest beside her lifeless hand.

Josh knelt beside her and picked her up, holding her still-warm body in his arms. She was as limp as a sack of potatoes but at the same time as light as a feather. Blood leaked from her head and onto his shirt but he took no notice. When she had died, all she wanted was one thing. All she wanted was for somebody to hold her close to them as she passed on. So she wouldn't have felt alone as she left this world. He remembered those words, but heck, he didn't even do _that_ right.

He could feel the hot tears come to his eyes as he used a free hand to pick up the gun and grip it in frustration. Why. Why??

In that moment he made a promise to himself; they would all remember her as the carefree happy girl, even though that girl that had died a lifetime ago. Everyone had killed her though they didn't mean to. It was all too funny, too ironic in a way. They had all ended up working together, even him, to break her down. They had been doing that her whole life.

And yet she had always smiled, always fought back. She believed in Josh, smiled at him, laughed with him, probably even have cried with him if there was ever that chance. Sure some people would have said those gestures weren't all that great, but to someone like Josh they meant the world. They were the world.

It wasn't much and it wasn't what he had wanted to do, to take the blame and be her murderer. But it was the only thing he could do for her now. It would be his gift to her.

"I'll never let you go Victoria, you hear me?" He whispered in the dead girl's ear as he heard footsteps echoing up the staircase.

"I'll never let you go."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Thanks to my reviewers for the last two chapters! Thanks to _fussyrussy, BlueRetriever, and LongislandItalian2!_

**BlueRetriever: **Thanks for agreeing to the "case-of-opinion" thing with the Lilly vs. Lil thing. Hopefully you are satisfied with this chapter as well. I sincerely hope!


	19. Chapter 18

_Avril Lavigne – "Slipped Away"_

_Na na,_

_Na na na na na  
I miss you, miss you so bad  
I don't forget you, oh it's so sad_

Unable to hold back her emotions any longer, Lilly felt a single tear slide down her cheek. She glanced at Scotty only to find him stricken with the same powerful, indescribable emotions. In a way she still did not understand the reasons behind Josh's actions, but the emotions she felt in that moment were so powerful the reasons did not seem to matter anymore. She knelt down and planted a single kiss on top of the young boy's forehead before she followed Scotty out of the cell. It was time to clear Josh's name.

_I hope you can hear me  
I remember it clearly  
The day you slipped away  
Was the day I found it won't be the same  
Ooooh_

Under the glare of the harsh sunlight, Stephen twisted the remaining wires together and stood up to wipe some sweat off of his brow. His phone buzzed and he checks the caller I.D. For a split second he can't believe his eyes. His heart skips a beat as he reads Victoria's name on the screen. But the moment passes and he realizes he is mistaken. He will never get a phone call from her again.

_Na na na na na na na  
I didn't get around to kiss you  
Goodbye on the hand  
I wish that I could see you again  
I know that I can't_

Wandering amongst the happy and carefree swimmers, Adam glanced up towards the balcony of the pool. A happy couple is there, and as Adam watches the guy pulls his girlfriend in for a kiss before presenting her with a single flower. His heart aches as he watches the scene unfold before him. He and Victoria will never experience something like that.

_Oooooh I hope you can hear me  
__Cause I remember it clearly_  
_The day you slipped away  
Was the day I found it won't be the same  
Ooooh_

Alone in his small cell, Thomas sits down on his thin hard bed. He smiles to himself, remembering the single conversation he had with Victoria, the angel in disguise. He can still remember her honest smiling face, the sadness in her eyes. He can still remember her shy smile. As he absentmindedly fingers the bracelet, _her _bracelet, Thomas can feel his mind drift back to a time when everything was right in the world.

_I had my wake up  
Won't you wake up  
I keep asking why  
And I can't take it  
It wasn't fake  
It happened, you passed by_

Walking alone in the mall Ryan glances up and finds his feet have taken him outside of a jewelry store, the same one he and Victoria visited a lifetime ago. To his surprise, there is the ring, _his _ring glimmering in the window. Swallowing all of his fear and doubts, Ryan opens the door and enters the shop, asking to see the ring in the window.

_Now you're gone, now you're gone  
There you go, there you go  
Somewhere I can't bring you back  
__Now you're gone, now you're gone  
There you go, there you go,  
Somewhere you're not coming back_

Scotty and Lilly exit the Philadelphia Police Station. It is a cold beautiful night as the first stars are starting to show up in the night sky. Wrapping his overcoat tightly around him Scotty glanced over to give Lilly a nervous smile only to receive one back. As they make their way down the street Scotty can feel Lilly's hand in his own. He doesn't know what will happen in the next few days, weeks, months or years. Will Stillman make one of them switch out of the homicide department? Scotty's not sure. He's not sure of anything anymore. He's not sure whether or not they're going to last, and whether or not they're going to have the love that most people can only dream about. But one thing is for sure.

They're going to try.

_The day you slipped away  
Was the day I found it won't be the same noo..  
The day you slipped away  
Was the day that I found it won't be the same oooh..._

It was the first time in over two years that Josh had been able to walk as a free man. He can feel Allison's hand in his own as the two make their way across the unmarked path. He looks at her face and she looks back and smiles at him. Josh remembers how lucky he is to have someone like Allison who loves him with all her heart. And he remembers how lucky he was to have met someone like Victoria.

There are only two people there, a guy and a girl but the gravestone is piled high with flowers as if the whole world has already stopped by.

The guy and the girl look up.

"I'm Mike." He says.

"Katie." She says.

Josh gently lets go of Allison's hand and steps forward. "I'm Josh."

"I know." She answers.

Suddenly Josh is aware of the bouquet of white roses he has balanced in one arm. A lump forms in his throat, his mind erasing all he had wanted to say.

But words don't matter here anymore. He places the roses among the rest of the flowers. He can feel a hand on his shoulder and looks up to see Victoria smiling back at him.

_Na na, na na na, na na  
I miss you_

THE END

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well that's it. During the writing of this fic, I was flipping back and forth between two endings, but eventually decided upon this one, the more or less "original" ending that I had come up with. Hopefully everyone is at least somewhat satisfied, and I won't get too many hate reviews or hate messages (haha). I hope everyone has enjoyed taking this journey with me, I can't believe it's been almost two years. Big thanks to all my reviewers throughout the writing of this story (you guys kept me going), and to anybody else that reviews afterwards. A special "Thank You" to everyone that has reviewed so far (in alphabetical order, and therefore does not mean someone is more special than you): 

Addicted666  
Anothergirl  
Bluenose  
BlueRetriever  
CheekyBabe101  
Cold Case Chick  
Elle452  
Fussyrussy  
Givemecookies  
Heidi  
Intheclosetromantic  
Jambled  
Kawaii-peach14  
LongislandItalian2  
Marion  
Mary Rose  
Max Fuchs  
Mysterious Meli  
Pen  
Pushpitake  
Sarah  
The Magic Bringer

Thank you!


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